| Description: | This guide is about activating an already installed Windows 10 Home or Professional using a product key as well as upgrading an existing installation of Windows 10 Home to Windows 10 Professional. If you still haven’t installed any operating system or you are upgrading from an older operating system, please refer to our Windows 10 – Clean Install Guide instead. 1. Please be very certain that you installed a genuine copy of Windows. Genuine product keys will of course, not work on illegal copy of Windows because Microsoft’s activation servers are blocked within the operating system. If you are in doubt with your system’s authenticity, it is safer to assume that it is an illegal copy and that you will have to do a clean install instead using Microsoft’s official Windows 10 media creation tool. 2. Once you are absolutely certain you are using a genuine copy of Windows 10, on the lower left portion of your desktop is the Windows search bar. Type Activation and open it. Alternatively, you can access the activation settings by clicking the Start Button (Windows logo) located at the lower left corner of your desktop and choosing Settings (Cogwheel icon). Then click Update and Security and select Activation on the left menu to arrive at the activation settings. The most dangerous malware are called rootkits which mimic the core system files. They come from pirated OS installation and are not detectable by any anti-virus as it hides as a legitimate system file. With a simple command, hackers can get your usernames, passwords, financial details, browsing history and other files they deemed useful. They can also operate your PC remotely. Using your Google or Facebook account, they can create ads for themselves and charge your credit cards thousands of dollars. The worst part is that, this is non refundable since it’s your IP address and PC that created it. A Cracked PC Is A Slow PC. Most people will think that their anti-virus is just giving false positives during an installation of a pirated OS but the truth is that 92% of pirated OS really do contain malware. Most of these malwares are the most dangerous: Rootkits, which continuously send keystrokes, pictures, videos (when you have a webcam), usernames, passwords, financial details and other data they can take advantage of. These malwares severely slow down your PC by using its CPU, RAM and running hidden programs. “Cracking” an OS is a complicated process involving alteration of the system’s core files and core registry files. It also alters the way your computer connects to the servers. These alterations adversely hinder the way your PC communicates with the OS thru your drivers, making your PC up to 40% slower than usual. |