Microsoft created a document titled, "How to Troubleshoot Product Activation in Windows 10." After exploring this document, it appears Microsoft either hired software engineers from Obamacare or provided software engineers to Obamacare... definitely one or the other (OK, I'm trying to be humorous, but I'm disgusted). I've personally been involved with research and product development as a design engineer for over forty-five years; working mostly on complex military systems for large corporations such as Raytheon, Litton Industries and Teledyne. The Win10 software development incompetency illustrated to perform a simple activation task within the "How to" document should be an immense embarrassment to Microsoft. Just to activate their own software product, the "How to" document goes through an incredible multitude of "trial and error" attempts. What a convoluted mess to what should be a simple product activation. From my own past design experience, this level of product design engineering incompetence often occurs as a result of a "design by committee" effort in which nobody takes design ownership responsibility. It also requires a hands-off engineering management philosophy which allows the creative design types to run wild. I know, I've witness this sort of chaos many times and have personally been given the task to straighten out messes created by others. My hunch is that Microsoft could have made the activation process difficult (actually it could be impossible) in order to force Win10 users to pay dollars for a Product Key. I think Microsoft might be involved in a class action lawsuit. There are so many Win10 issues that have irritated the general public.

Unlike other commentators, I generally haven't had too many Win 10 operating system problems. Spread throughout the house we have five Dell and HP laptop/desktop computers with Windows 10 installed. Had some problems upgrading older Acer notebooks from Win7 to Win10 and have since retired them. My heavily used Dell XPS 8500 was upgraded from Win7 to Win8.1 to Win10 and I can't activate the product key. Computers upgraded from original Win8 systems to Win10 work fine. My wife's new Dell Inspiron 14,3000 series laptop with Win10 Home installed can't be pried from her hands... she loves it.

My older Pentium 4 computers are used for consulting work, using Win2000 and WinXP for my CAD (computer aided design) applications. Win2000 remains my favorite OS because it works fast and never crashes. Doing a fresh install of Win2000/XP and to access OS software updates is a nightmare. So now I clone spare hard drives for backup purposes. I never want to relive that fresh install experience again. It has been more difficult to perform as the years pass; it's a real challenge.

Microsoft Customer Support (A Not So Delightful Experience for the Hearing Impaired): With only one marginally operational ear used for hearing, I'm usually anxious when I have to use the telephone to discuss an issue with customer support. The anxiety is further compounded when I realize I'm talking to someone with a heavy Indian dialect that informs me to use the NATO Phonetic Alphabet (NPA), a requirement for communicating those 25-character Product Keys used to validate your operating system. You know, NPA means: A is alpha, B is bravo and C is Charlie and so on. Every time I used Mary for M I the communications broke down when not using the proper NPA term which is Mike for the letter M. Furthermore, you need to know number 4 is pronounced fo-wer and 9 is niner. It took about five minutes to correctly transfer my Windows 7,25-character Product Key to the ears of the very pleasant and polite, and trying-to-be-helpful Indian Customer Support person. But at times, I did sense he could place a dagger in my heart if he lived closer to me. I think I placed him into a momentary state of insanity. I'd say 50% of the time I understood the Customer Support question or comment being made. No doubt the Customer Support person understood me much better than I could understand him. I don't spend all day chatting with people from India which puts me, the so-called appreciated customer, at a severe disadvantage for understanding an unfamiliar accent from India. The conversation seemed to go on and on for a very long time; seemed like an hour spent on relearning the English language. It was fun watching my computer screen taken under control from India as he moved the cursor on my computer; very cool. All of the Microsoft upper-management types should be required to daily communicate for one hour with their English-language-challenged India Customer Support personnel to provide a communications training service. Of course, the Microsoft managers would only discuss meaningless things like "How's the weather?" or "What's your favorite food?" and completely avoiding complex technical issues.

To summarize, my Microsoft English-language-challenged Customer Support person recommended that I perform a fresh Win10 OS install which means all my apps and saved files are destroyed. I started the install of the downloaded Win10 ISO file install and the option to save my apps and files was blocked from access; so I aborted the install. The destruction of my apps and files would be the price I'd pay to obtain a so-called Activated Windows 10 OS as recommended by Customer Support. I find this approach unacceptable. Currently, my Windows 10 Pro Insider Preview Evaluation Copy (which operates well enough) only needs a Product Key. For whatever reason, Win10 Pro doesn't accept my Windows 7 Product Key provided by Dell for my XPS-8500 desktop computer. At the time of the Dell purchase, a Win8 upgrade coupon was included and later this upgrade installed and activated when Win8 became available. I never received a Win8 Product Key; supposedly because it's embedded in the BIOS and the Win 10 install doesn't require a manually entered Product Key.

So why can't Microsoft simply give me a working Product Key for my current Win 10 Pro Insider OS install? By not accepting the Microsoft Customer Support solution which destroys my installed aps and files, the only alternate, straightforward path is to follow Microsoft's computer screen instructed directions to obtain a Product Key. That is, to pay Microsoft $200 for a Pro Insider OS Product Key. Well, no thank you Microsoft, I'd opt to purchase another computer than pay you money you should not receive from me.

So my choices are two: (1) Accept Microsoft's offering of a Win10 OS ISO file I downloaded which destroys all my apps and saved data (and hopefully the backup is reusable and the Product Key works), or (2) Pay $200 for a new Product Key for my existing Pro Insider Preview OS. I clearly hear the words bribery (meaning Ill receive something desirable or of value for $200 in exchange for getting something in return that doesn't destroy my apps). A lot of hours are required to install aps.

So what say you, Microsoft? What happens to my numerous apps in my computer if I don't have an activated Windows 10 Pro Insider? Will my currently working Pro Insider OS remain functional without activation? I don't understand why Microsoft cant activate my existing Pro Insider OS (I'm an electronic design engineer and I know this shouldn't be a difficult task for Microsoft to perform).

And I have to say that Microsoft's Customer Support really sucks. But in all fairness, their Customer Support is about as satisfying as eBay's Customer Support which also sucks. My wife and I have had bad experiences on eBay. My wife stopped using eBay all together because of an irritating customer support experience. Its really weird to be attempting to discuss technical issues to someone that can't speak English well. Its a difficult enough process to convey technical matters with someone that does speak English well. My wife once went through Customer Support Hell when attempting to make airline reservations with someone from India. The airline reservations ended up being all messed up after a lot of back and forth, multiple phone call conversations. We're not using that airline again! Are there people in this country smart enough to hire to perform Customer Support technical issues?

Microsoft has turned into a joke of a company every since Bill Gates left and that jerk off Steve Balmer took over.

Windows 7 was great. Windows 8/8.1 was a joke. Windows 10 is an even bigger joke.

I run a computer repair shop and this is all from experience.
You get a free update to Windows 10 from 7 or 8. Sounds great. Driver support is beyond horrible. I have had numerous people come in and complain about Windows 10 getting put on their PC without approving it. Clicking on the X (the same button everyone has used since Win 95) in the corner of the popup actually APPROVES the update to win 10.

We could go on about the update process. MS has taken away your ability to control what drivers are used on your PC. Have a high end GPU and need to run a specific driver for a specific game? Better run another OS beside Win 10. MS will install whatever driver it feels is the best. Doesn't matter to them that a certain driver may cause freezing, audio popping or any number of other issues. MICROSOFT KNOWS BEST! MS also controls the update process. It will reboot WHENEVER IT WANTS. You could have 100 open office apps(unsaved) and the CPU running at 100% and the system will FORCE REBOOT. Every tried to reboot your PC when a office app was open? It says that a program is preventing windows from rebooting. Why? SO YOU DON'T LOSE WORK ON UNSAVED DOCS. MS specifically designed it so the system won't reboot when a office app is opened but not saved. Turns out that Windows 10 is too important for that and you can pray that office opens the file recovery window when it starts.

MS is constantly adding new features and whatnot to improve the OS. The problem is that its causing more issues than it solves. Update 1511 removed the ability to control drivers on your system. I have serviced about a dozen systems that had broken printers after the 1511 update. Printer says its working but only prints blank page. You have to completely uninstall your printer drivers before the upgrade (mainly HP printers). MS added a compressed memory feature that consumes extraordinary amounts of system resources. It works OK on newer systems but not so good on older systems without a lot of memory. Problem is that the feature was supposedly designed to improve performance on older systems. You cannot stop the 1511 update from being applied to your system. You cannot stop any updates.

And I didn't even mention that MS is selling your personal info to 3rd party affiliates for advertising.

TL: DR DON'T USE WINDOWS 10 UNLESS YOU WANT TO HAVE A BAD DAY. With many more to come later.