My copy of Windows is not activating on my CORSAIR system

All CORSAIR VENGEANCE systems come pre-installed with a copy of Windows 11 and should be set up where the key is integrated into the motherboard by the time you turn it on for the first time. 

Occasionally, that process doesn't finish all the way through. If that happens to you, don't worry! There are a few things that you can do to fix that!

Windows Activation Troubleshooter

A lot of times, especially if you've signed into a Microsoft account during the set-up process, Microsoft will check if you have a Windows key associated with your account and attempt to use it on the new device. This can confuse the system and cause the key that's in the motherboard to not get activated. 

Windows has a built-in activation troubleshooter which is a good start to fix that. Here's how to get there:

Start 🪟> Settings ⚙️ > System 💻> Activation ✅

Select the Troubleshoot 🔧 prompt and the troubleshooter will run. 

The Activation Troubleshooter can usually rectify most of the issues. If it fails, read on for the second method!

Key Extraction

If the Activation Troubleshoot fails to activate Windows, you might need to manually extract the key from the motherboard. 

To do this, open Windows PowerShell as an Administrator, and type the following command and press Enter:

(Get-WmiObject -query 'select * from SoftwareLicensingService').OA3xOriginalProductKey

What if either option doesn't work?
 

If you try both options and neither of them successfully activate Windows, take screenshots of the errors you ran into, and please contact our Support team below: