Fix Windows Activation failed due to Software Protection Service error code 0xc0000022

Win10 activation SPS access deniedWith Windows Activation, the fun never ends!

Recently I reset a laptop with OEM Windows 10 Home for a friend. All I did was use the built-in Win 10 “factory reset” that should have wiped everything, reinstalled Win 10, and then reactivated just fine.

Alas, that’s not what happened…

Instead, I got error code 0xc0000022, and the perfectly valid built-in OEM key would not re-activate the same Windows on the same hardware – no matter what I did.

It turns out the culprit was an ‘access denied‘ error in the Software Protection service…

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