Are you trying to resolve Windows Activation Error Code 0xc004f074?

This guide is for you.

Inactivated Windows 10 will just download critical updates many optional updates and several downloads, services, and apps from Microsoft that normally are featured with activated Windows can also be blocked.

The error code 0xC004f074 occurs when a user downloads an illegal (pirated) version of the Windows operating system while attempting to upgrade Windows.

It also indicates that the Key Management Service (KMS) could not contact during the activation procedure.

Here at Ibmi Media, as part of our Server Management Services, we regularly help our Customers to fix Windows related errors.

In this context, we shall look into steps to fix this Windows error.

How to fix Windows activation error code 0xc004f074 ?

We can fix the Windows activation error code 0xc004f074 using various methods.

Some of the methods that our Support Experts follow to fix this error for our customers is given below:

1.  Run the Update and Activation Troubleshooters

The steps to follow are given below:

i. First, we will go to the Settings and then to Update & Security

ii. From update and security we will take Troubleshooter.

iii. Then we will select Windows Update and execute the troubleshooter.

If the error persists, we will run Windows 10 Activation Troubleshooter as well.

Steps to follow are:

i. Take the Settings and go to Update & Security

ii. From there we will choose Activation and take Troubleshooter

iii. After completing the troubleshooting process, we can restart the system.

2. Use the slmgr.vbs command

We can use the slmgr.vbs to fix this error.

i. We will open the Command Prompt and right-click it to Run as administrator.

ii. Give the command "slmgr.vbs  /ipk YYYYY- YYYYY – YYYYY – YYYYY – YYYYY" in the terminal.

slmgr.vbs /ipk <The KMS Product Key>

iii. To activate the key online, we will execute the following command:

slmgr.vbs /ato

iv. After activating the KMS key, we will reboot the system.

3. Run the Slui 3 command

This is another method for fixing the windows activation error, which is followed by our Support Engineers.

i. Press Windows+R to open the "Run"

ii. In the run window we will type slui 3 and press enter.

iii. After that we will note down the System Product key that appears from the operating system product key.

iv. Then we will click the "Activate" button.

v. Finally we will Restart the Windows 8 or Windows 10 system.

4. Running SFC scan

To run this scan on customers system the following steps can be used:

i. We open the Command Prompt window.

ii. And type the command in the command prompt. : sfc /scannow

iii. After finishing the scan we can restart the system.

5. Resync Time

If we have the wrong date and time on our system, it can also lead to error code 0Xc004F074.

To fix this we will verify if the time and date are updated correctly on the system or resynchronize the time.

We can also use the following command:

w32tm /resync

6. Update the KMS Host

If we are running an older version of the windows server, then updating the server will fix this, or we can also install KMS on the computer.

It must be kept in mind that we can update Windows Server 2013 Service Pack 1 and later versions of Windows Server 2003.

7. Reset and Restore PC

If any of the methods above couldn’t fix the error, we can try to reset and restore the default version of PC.

For this, we will follow the below steps to reset pc:

i. First, open the windows settings.

ii. Then take update and security and go to recovery

iii. From here we will click reset this pc.

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