That's understandable, because every detail the company provides about its anti-piracy measures offers information that its attackers can use.īut it's also frustrating, because Microsoft's customers who use Windows don't want to have to think about activation. Microsoft is characteristically shy about discussing the details of activation. And it's potentially an unwelcome surprise for anyone who tries to do a clean install of Windows 10 without understanding the new activation landscape. That's a huge change from previous versions of Windows, which required a product key for every installation. After you successfully activate Windows 10 for the first time, that device will activate automatically in the future, with no product key required.
The biggest change of all is that the Windows 10 activation status for a device is stored online.
