Having Trouble with Windows Activation

[JoshuaOkonkwo]

I bought a new HP PC that came with windows 10.

I received a notification that I can upgrade to windows 11 for free, which I did.

I have continued to stay updated since then and my PC now runs on Windows 11 Pro version 23H2.

Now I'm getting activation trouble. I keep getting this error:

We can't activate Windows on this device as we can't connect to your organization's activation server. Make sure you're connected to your organization's network and try again. If you continue having problems with activation, contact your organization's support person. Error code: 0xC004F074

I contacted people in Windows community and was told that my volume license is KMS, which is for organization only.

I got this computer brand-new only last year. It is not supposed to be linked to any organization.  This makes no sense to me.

Please help.

I cannot speak with anyone from HP Support because Nigeria is not covered by phone support.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

If your notebook came with W10 Pro from HP, there should be a W10 Pro OEM product key encrypted in the notebook's BIOS.

Download and install the free Showkey Plus app from the Microsoft Store.

ShowKeyPlus - Microsoft Apps

If the PC came with W10 Pro, there will be a Windows 10 product key and the version of W10 the key is good for.

There should also be a report of an Installed key.

If the installed key is different than the OEM key, change the installed product key to the OEM product key in the PC settings and you should be able to activate W11 Pro.

[JoshuaOkonkwo]

Thank you, Paul, for responding. 

ShowKey shows only "Installed key" (although I could have sworn I saw "installed key" and "original key" the first time I run the app). 

Trying the "original key" returns same error as before: "unable to connect to organization..."

There is no OEM key. 

What can I do?

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

You're very welcome.

You'll have to purchase a copy of Windows with a product key.

Apparently, your 255 G8 notebook was sold by HP with FreeDOS and not Windows, which means that there is no product key in the BIOS.

I recommend that wherever you bought the notebook from, you ask whoever installed Windows to provide the product key they used to you because they should not have done that.

If you enter your notebook's serial number in the search window at the link below, it will tell you if the notebook came with Windows or FreeDOS.

HP PartSurfer