You will get “You need to activate Windows before you can personalize your PC” message on all pages under the Personalization category. Activate Windows now” message at the home page of the Settings app. When you are running an unlicensed copy of Windows 10, you will get “Windows isn’t activated. Go to settings to activate Windows” watermark at the lower right corner of the desktop when running Windows 10 without activation. That said, if you would like to run Windows 10 without any annoying messages and want to have access to all its settings, you need to activate Windows 10 from day one only. Since inactivated Windows 10 install doesn’t stop working or booting up after x number of days, it’s hard to tell how long one can use Windows 10 without activation. Well, we cannot say for how many days one can use Windows 10 without activation as Windows 10 seems to work without activation for years. How long can you use Windows 10 without activation?

One can also use genuine Windows 7/8 product key to activate Windows 10. In fact, even today, PC users with genuine copies of Windows 7/8/8.1 are allowed to upgrade to Windows 10 for free although Microsoft has officially stopped the free upgrade program about a year ago. Most of the home users have upgraded to Windows 10 using the free Windows 7/8/8.1 upgrade offer that Microsoft had started along with the release of Windows 10.

Windows 10 shutdown without update 2019