SOLVED Azure VM shows cannot activate Windows 11 due to error 0xC004C020

[Harshit Pandey]

Hi,

I created a new VM in Azure and selected Windows 11 23H2 as the version. After signing in to the VM, I am seeing that it is not activated at all. Usually this never happens with Azure but I am not sure why it happened with this VM. I have restated the VM couple of times but no luck. Any idea what to do?

 

[Prajwal Desai]

I have listed some common reasons for Windows 11 activation error 0xC004C020 in this guide - https://www.prajwaldesai.com/fix-windows-activation-error-0xc004c020/

 

[Harshit Pandey]

Thanks for the update. We had to reach out to Azure support and they asked to recreate the VM and its all working now. Since it was a new VM, we were saved from 0xC004C020 error.