Product Key for Windows 10 Didn't Work

I think you are supposed to just skip that and your upgrade will activate automatically by itself so just skip adding the  product key and check it later on and I think you will find it activated itself ... The W10 upgrade activates using the machine motherboard not the previous product key ..

 JS...

Thanks for your reply..however there is no option to skip because product key didn't work and "next" button is not enable...please see below screenshot...

Yeah he is right upgrade over old version then from there W10 will reinstall clean and key can be skipped...

JS...

you folks who replied are not paying attention to what he said.

scenario: W8.1 upgrade using the Media Creation tool. Run the installer and yes he is correct it prompts you for a windows license key. It doesnt read the one embedded in your motherboard, operatiing system or anything else. It sits there stupidly and requires a key, that MS did'nt send.

You cannot go any further. You cannot skip this key requirement. All you can do is give up because MS gave you an upgrade tool that doesnt work for no damn reason.

to the guy, JT who said you must install over an existing win7 or 8 installation, thats exactly what he is doing and you are totally wrong with your answer. reread what the OP wrote before giving bad info. eh

Total fail MS...way to suck.

Sadly this result is either working as designed for some unknown reason or its the result of total incompetence by MS planners and engineers. The idea of the media creation tool is to bypass the wait and upgrade now. If all you can do is download 3gb and then get halted by a code request there's no actual upgrade other than the wait for it in windows update path. not sure the point MS was trying to make here other than the demonstrate yet again they don't understand their customers and work hard to frustrate them whenever possible.

The fact is its broken.

Don't bother trying to MS technical support. They are totally useless. The phones are so busy from this botched rollout that you'll never get through. 

In summary, go buy a mac...lol.

I run a fully MS shop, however i have one mac and this kind of **** doesnt happen to mac.

if i had a twitter acct i'd be spamming #w10epicfail

Here is how it worked for me.....

upgraded to W10 pro from 8.1pro

got W10 set up ... went to settings.... update and security... then the recovery option...then reset this PC

then choose remove everything (that meant previous files from previous W version)...

and proceeded from there...and reset up W10 and this amounted to  a clean install.

later  I ran belarc advisor and it listed a W10 product key even...

you might try this... and I since have been able to create a DVD iso W10 disc for reinstalling...

I will post how I got the ISO file and burnt to dvd as soon as I can find how I did that.... 

found it ..  http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wiki/windows_10-windows_install/how-to-upgrade-to-windows-10-using-the-alternative/2159c2a7-a925-4fa3-9a03-08a5e1ecf891http://

 JS....

js72,

I appreciate that's how it worked for you. However for the OP and me we are not getting an auto download of w10 and the manually created windows image that MS offers dont work.

So while you had w10 install successfully we have not. We are still w8 with no apparent upgrade path that works.

i was just reviewing my windows updates and see 4 failed attempts for w10 installs. It may be me trying upgrade but i think at least one or two are attempts that have been hidden from me while my pc sat unused.

Nothing on my screen when i've returned showed an attempted upgrade so i'm just guessing.

Still seems like a buggy rollout. if anyone has the key to answer this challenge for a product key i'm sure w10 might actually install.