How to Fix 'Your Windows license will expire soon' in Windows 10

anak ng kamote!

When I bought my new laptop, I tinkered with Windows 10's new features, installed apps I used on my Windows 7 desktop, and played with a few 'frowned upon' things (yes, I have loose morals). During one of my dabbling sessions this message appeared out of nowhere, which made me wonder what happened, because I bought this laptop brand new, so the Windows key should be valid. I even went back to the shop I bought my laptop from and they were even dumbfounded about what happened. I did some research and I just realized that one of the apps I installed messed up my Windows key and replaced it with a non genuine one resulting in the pop up notification you see on this page. Now all I have to do was to just check the sticker underneath my laptop to get my license key but... It's not there! There's no sticker! Apparently, most of the new laptops sold nowadays doesn't have this (I don't know why), even on the box. Now what should I do? So here's best friend Google with the solution.

A brief lesson (from the source website)

Typically, after activating your Windows license, your computer will stay in the “activated” status permanently. It won’t be asked for again. However, sometimes something goes wrong, and your Windows OS shows a warning with the error message mentioned above.

For example, most laptops come pre-loaded with a version of Windows and have stickers that contain the license keys at the bottom. If you purchase an old laptop from someone, they might write that license key down and use it to activate the same Windows edition on another PC.

When they do that, your key will be deactivated, and you may get this type of error. But sometimes you will get ‘This copy of Windows is not genuine’ error instead.

So how do I retrieve my genuine key?

ShowKeyPlus interface

Download the app called ShowKeyPlus.

ShowKeyPlus is a freeware program which helps users to retrieve the product key of the installed Windows operating system. While tech-savvy users might not need any such software, this will really help newbies who are not keen to tinker around their computers and just want a straightforward answer.

Features of the app are:

The freeware is portable and can be used without any installation on your Windows PC. You can carry it on any of your removable USB drives and use it in any of your PCs.
It comes with a plain and simple interface, and one doesn’t need any technical know-how to use this software. The main overview of the program displays the product key right away.
The freeware also let you check the edition of a product key.
Not just the product key of upgraded and currently installed OS, but this freeware displays the OEM product key too i.e. the product key of original equipment. Which means you can also check the details about the original version of Windows installed on your PC. When you upgrade your OS, ShowKey Plus automatically replaces the product key with the new and upgraded one.
It retrieves product key from a backup. You just need to browse the location of the backup file in your PC and the freeware will find the product key.
There is also an option to save all your information about the OEM key and the upgraded OS product key. Just click on the ‘Save’ button and save the .txt file in any desired folder of your PC.
Click the Version link to toggle between light and dark mode skins.

So after downloading the app and running it, that's when I saw that the installed key on my laptop is the non genuine one, but it also showed the original key that came with the OS. So I copied the original and went to Settings -> Update & security -> Activation and entered the original key then viola! The product key was recognized by Windows 10.

Overall, ShowKeyPlus is a very useful tool, with a very clean and decent interface, to check your original (and in this instance, my non-genuine), and updated Windows keys.

'Til the next tech tidBeATS!