Windows activation screen in settings is blank, blue activation screen pops up repeatedly

Hi, I recently reinstalled windows on my Dell XPS 9560, and it’s been acting funny when it comes to activation. A blue screen asking me to activate windows pops up every hour or so, and when I click the button to activate windows, it opens up the settings page, but the page is blank. I can’t seem to figure out what to do about this. I’m not sure if some of my windows files are corrupted or if my digital license key is not working. I’ve attached images of the two pages.

Blue pop up screen:

Blank settings page:

Is there some way that I can fix this? Thank you. Please let me know if you need more details.

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My name is Sarah Kong and I am an independent adviser that is here to try and help you with your issue.

That is odd.
This maybe an issue with a system file being corrupt.
You can try a couple things.

Right click your start button and select Command prompt (Admin) to bring up elevated Command prompt.
In Command prompt type sfc /scannow and press enter.
Restart the computer.

If that doesn’t work then try this,

Right click your start button and select Command prompt (Admin) to bring up elevated Command prompt.

In the Administrator: Command Prompt window, type the following commands.
Press Enter key after each command:

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Scanhealth

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth

Important: When you run this command, DISM uses Windows Update to provide the files that are required to fix corruptions.
To close the Administrator: Command prompt window, type Exit, and then press Enter.
Restart your computer.

Blank Windows Activation Screen in Settings

I’ve recently reset my Windows Surface Book as I was having problems with the Firewall not working.

Upon resetting the Surface Book, the firewall and security settings are now working but Windows keeps notifying me that my version of Windows needs to be activated — it does this with a fullscreen blue notification and prompts to access the Activation screen in settings.

The problem is, that when I go to the Activation screen it is blank with no options or buttons to select.

The file path for the screen is:

Start > Settings > Updates & Security > Activation

How can I fix this so that the Activation page shows options?

Replies (4) 

Hi Joe_839
Greetings! I am Vijay, an Independent Advisor. I am here to work with you on this problem.

Let’s try to reinstall Setting app
Windows Key+X > Click Powershell (Admin) > Copy the below and paste into Powershell > Enter > Reboot your computer

Get-AppXPackage -Name Windows.Immersivecontrolpanel | Foreach

Please report back me the results so that I can advise further steps if your problem is not solved.

Best regards
Vijay A. Verma @ http://www.eforexcel.com/

Timezone: UTC+05:30, PST+12:30
Availability Hours (UTC) : 05:00 AM — 05:00 PM

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You best option is to contact Microsoft Support and ask them to help you re-activate your Windows 10

Power to the Developer!

MSI GV72 — 17.3″, i7-8750H (Hex Core), 32GB DDR4, 4GB GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, 256GB NVMe M2, 2TB HDD

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This didn’t solve the problem and I’m still getting a blank screen.

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Next option is a Windows 10 repair upgrade (This is not Reset or Reinstall of Windows). Repair upgrade fixes all Windows errors and retains all files, applications and settings. (You will not lose any data while backup is a good idea) Below is a good guide to perform repair upgrade

Do let me know if you require any further help on this. Will be glad to help you.

Disclaimer — This is a non-Microsoft website. The page appears to be providing accurate, safe information. Watch out for ads on the site that may advertise products frequently classified as a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Products). Thoroughly research any product advertised on the site before you decide to download and install it.

Best regards
Vijay A. Verma @ http://www.eforexcel.com/

Timezone: UTC+05:30, PST+12:30
Availability Hours (UTC) : 05:00 AM — 05:00 PM

Enable Print Screen Key to Launch Screen Snipping in Windows 10

Starting with Windows 10 build 17661, currently referred to as «Redstone 5», Microsoft implemented a new option — screen snipping. A new Screen Snip feature has been added to Windows 10 to quickly snip and share a screenshot. You can use the Print Screen key to launch screen snipping. Here is how.

Using the new tool, you can capture a rectangle, snip a freeform area, or take a full screen capture, and copy it directly to the clipboard. Immediately after taking a snip you’ll now get a notification that will take you and your snip to the Screen Sketch app where you can annotate and share away. In the current implementation, other traditional tools available in the Snipping Tool (Delay, Window snip, and ink color, etc) are missing.

See the following article:

It is possible to enable the Print Screen Key to launch Screen Snipping in Windows 10. This option is disabled by default. A new toggle switch can be found in Settings which controls this feature.

Enable Print Screen Key to Launch Screen Snipping in Windows 10

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Go to Ease of access -> Keyboard.
3. On the right, scroll down to the Print Screen key section.
4. Turn on the option Use the Print Screen key to launch screen snipping.

This option can be disabled later if you change your mind.

Besides the Screen Snip feature, Windows 10 comes with a bunch of options for taking screenshots. You can use

• The Win+Print Screen hotkey
• Only the PrtScn (Print Screen) key
• The Alt+Print Screen keys
• The Snipping Tool application, which also has its own Win + Shift + S shortcut. Tip: You can also create a shortcut to capture a screen region in Windows 10.

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About Sergey Tkachenko

Sergey Tkachenko is a software developer from Russia who started Winaero back in 2011. On this blog, Sergey is writing about everything connected to Microsoft, Windows and popular software. Follow him on Telegram, Twitter, and YouTube.

4 thoughts on “ Enable Print Screen Key to Launch Screen Snipping in Windows 10 ”

“Print Screen Key” does not show up as an option in my “ease of access -> Keyboard” menu.

From CMD (as ADM):
reg add “HKCU\Control Panel\Keyboard\” /v “PrintScreenKeyForSnippingEnabled” /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

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Windows 10 activation screen is blank!

After a major hardware upgrade i need to re-activate windows 10 Enterprise.

But the activation window is blank.

Windows continually prompts me to activate but i cant.

Any help please.

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Is your system part of domain network? If yes, try leaving domain and see if that helps.

Else, try Microsoft chat support (available on weekdays only) to get live help from Microsoft agent to resolve the activation issue:

Let us know if this helps!

Helping Windows users, since 2010 · Please remember to mark replies as answers, if they helps!

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Windows 10 Enterprise is unusual, it is a volume licence, which is usually for Organisations or companies . ..

Click your Start Button, type cmd then right click Command Prompt and choose ‘Run as Administrator’

Run or paste this command and hit Enter:

Please post a screenshot of the resulting dialog . . .

Power to the Developer!

MSI GV72 — 17.3″, i7-8750H (Hex Core), 32GB DDR4, 4GB GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, 256GB NVMe M2, 2TB HDD

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cannot activate Print Screen in Windows 8.1 — tried Alt PrtSc; CTRL PrtSc: Shift PrtSc

I just got a new laptop with Windows 8.1 on it. I’ve tried repeatedly to use the Print Screen function of Microsoft Office 2010, but it just won’t work.

I’ve tried Alt PrtSc; CTRL PrtSc: Shift PrtSc.

I’ve tried to print the screen and paste it to Paint, but it just won’t work.

Oh, is there a SIMPLE way I can create a clickable PAINT icon for my toolbar. The Windows 8 operating system is a horror.

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even with Windows 8.1 The program is a free download & is super easy to use. The link is below. Hope it works as good for you as it does for me!

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Paint is located at C:\Windows\system32\mspaint.. you can probably create a shortcut to it, right click on it, and select Pin To Taskbar. or copy it to your desktop.

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that’s me!!’s post on January 21, 2014

Nancy B., thanks so much for your response. I’ll give LightShot a try — thanks for the link.

I can’t believe there’s no microsoft fix for the prtsc problem. I use it all the time.

MS 8.1 is so much more time consuming to use than 7. Aside from features not working and having to go to Search to get the programs, the sidebar tool bar is always popping out when I’m working.

What on earth were they thinking.

Thanks again,
Karen

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Slance310, thanks so much for the tip — I’ll try it now.

I’ve never had so much trouble with an operating system.

Thanks again,
Karen

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I’ve had this problem with 8.1 as well, but only intermittently. I use Dropbox and my screen shots save directly to DB too, but sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. If I wait and come back and try to do a screen shot again, it will work just fine. I use Picasa to edit my screen shots & am trying to do a little project, but it’s very annoying when it works & then it doesn’t.

If you come up with a solution or find a fix, let us know!!

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