Remove activate Windows watermark

You start your Windows session an the first you see is an annoying warning at the bottom right that asks to activate your Windows copy.

You may have previously entered a product key to avoid or remove the “activate windows” watermark, but it could happen that this key was used in more than one installation, or the key was directly disabled by Microsoft because it was blacklisted in their database.

Whatever your situation is, in this tutorial you will learn how to activate Windows 10 without the need of third party applications and totally free.

Looking for Windows 10 download? Check «this post»

You can edit the registry to remove the watermark from your desktop, but your Windows will still not be activated. That's why the best recommendation is to activate your copy of Windows 10.

Currently, the safest method is to perform the activation by connecting to a KMS server that will validate your license. Therefore it's necessary to have an internet connection.

We will explain you how to perform the activation from the command line, and if you need to activate more than one computer we share a script that will make the job easier.

Using the console to remove the activation watermark

This method is documented by Microsoft, it's used to perform volume activations and therefore is totally legal.

Using the slmgr.vbs script we can activate our copy of Windows 10 by connecting to a key validation server.

Step 1. From the start button, you can do a right click and launch a Powershell instance with administrator privileges. The classic command prompt works the same for this purpose.

Step 2. We need to define the product key that we're going to use to activate Windows 10. You can do this with the following command.

slmgr /ipk YOURPRODUCTKEY

You need to choose the appropriate license for the Windows version you want to activate. Here we share a brief list.

• Windows 10 Pro: W269N-WFGWX-YVC9B-4J6C9-T83GX
• Pro N: MH37W-N47XK-V7XM9-C7227-GCQG9
• Windows 10 Home: TX9XD-98N7V-6WMQ6-BX7FG-H8Q99
• Home N: 3KHY7-WNT83-DGQKR-F7HPR-844BM

Are you running another Windows edition? You can look for a more complete list by visiting this link: «Windows GVLK Keys»

Step 3. After you've installed the right product key for your Windows version, let's proceed to configure the validation server

slmgr /skms kms.digiboy.ir

Other popular KMS Servers: kms7.msguides.com or kms8.msguides.com

Step 4. Now that you have set up your prefered KMS Server, you can proceed to activate Windows 10 with this command.

slmgr /ato

This should be enough to remove the annoying watermark and leave your Windows 10 fully activated

If the watermark is still displayed, log out from your Windows session and log in again.

With the slmgr /xpr command you can check for the remaining grace period since the last validation against the KMS Server

Using a script to remove the watermark

In situations where it's necessary to activate more than one computer and it's preferable to streamline the process, the use of a script that incorporates these commands can be of great help.

This simple script performs the necessary steps to activate Windows 10 just by running it on the console.

Step 1. Copy all the text from the script and place it into Windows Notepad.

Step 2. Save the file with an easy to identify name and don't forget to name it with the proper file extension. Batch scripts end with .cmd

Step 3. Go to the directory where you saved the script, right click on it and run as administrator

Step 4. Wait for the script to complete the activation process

After 180 days it's necessary to validate your product key again with the KMS Server you've previously configured in order to keep your Windows activated. We recommend to use the task scheduler to automate this process.

With the slmgr /xpr command you can verify the remaining grace period since the last validation with the KMS Server

Frequently Asked Questions