Folks happen to think it’s super easy to just activate your Windows 11 PC. While there are certainly ways to activate your Windows 11 easily and quickly, not all ways are fully reliable. But let’s assume you are using the most reliable way out there (either Team Daz’s KMS Pico or MASSGRAVE’s MAS Activator), even then there are several considerations to keep in mind.
Let’s take a closer look at the top five things to keep in mind when you use KMS Pico or MAS activation to activate your copy of Windows 11!
1. Always Download Activators from Trusted Sources
If you are downloading KMS Pico, make sure that you are downloading it from a trustworthy source. KMS Pico remains to be a popular tool, even though MAS offers KMS within it and the HWID method also exists. So, for those—remember that there’s a high chance you will stumble upon a shady website offering a KMS Pico executable laced with malware, phishing software, spyware, or some other type of malicious code!
It happens all the time.
So, we recommend you stick to reliable, trustworthy websites that are well-regarded in the community for activating. We will help you out! First of all, we offer a KMS Pico installer that’s 100% clean and malware-free. It’s the real thing and we regularly update it.
But you are free to do your own research. Owing to the fact that sometimes, Team Daz (original creator of the KMS Pico method) website links are taken down and shady ones might come on top when you Google for it, it’s always best to go to a forum to find the current working link to their website or GitHub.
2. MAS HWID Activation is Permanent and Irreversible
MAS activation is a simple process to activate Windows 11. You open PowerShell and run a script—that’s all. It’s clean, doesn’t require any downloads, doesn’t need you to turn off the antivirus, and doesn’t even modify any system files. The best part? It’s only getting better! They have even cracked the code to activate older and niche Windows versions/editions like Vista. But that is out of the scope of this article.
The thing to consider is when you MAS activator and choose the HWID method, your system is permanently activated. This activation is tied to your hardware configuration. So, even reinstalling Windows on your PC will not get rid of the activation. If something breaks due to this activation, you can never really remove it!
That is, until you change your hardware itself, like the motherboard. So, that’s always a good thing to keep in mind. Permanence is not always good!
3. Avoid Using Activators on Work or Enterprise Devices
If you have a device given to you by your employer or if it’s a workplace PC/laptop, do not activate it using Windows 11 Activators. Instead, ask the IT department or your supervisor for a solution if you cannot live with that “Activate Windows” watermark on your screen or the lack of full functionality like personalization.
If you use a Windows 11 activator on a work PC and Microsoft finds out, your company might get implicated! Believe it or not, it’s extremely easy for Microsoft to identify these instances—it’s just not worth anything to find a random personal PC user and give them a warning for using a Windows activator.
Plus, as long as PC users keep activating Windows, it remains the #1 operating system, which will help the company derive profits from those who actually buy the license. If they start to crack down and more people start looking at user-friendly, free alternatives like Linux distributions, it will be bad for business.
But that all changes if multiple work-related PCs owned by an enterprise are using cracked Windows. Windows would want to get paid because enterprise sales are one of the biggest chunks of revenue for the OS.
4. KMS Activation Requires Periodic Renewal
KMS Pico only activates your Windows 11 for 180 days. This is by design. The tool mimics the Key Management Services (KMS) protocol originally designed by Microsoft to help enterprises activate hundreds of PCs in one go. The KMS Pico method creates a local server on the PC and has it communicate with your Windows 11 installation, tricking it into believing that it has been activated legitimately.
By design, this method only works for 180 days. Some KMS Pico tools, often called AutoKMS, have the functionality to auto-renew themselves every 180 days, but they will need to be kept installed on your PC and they will keep running all the time. This exacerbates the risk if their developer suddenly becomes malicious. There is no way to bypass this.
5. Major Windows Updates Can Revert KMS Activation
Lastly, you should also know that some major Windows updates can remove the KMS Pico installation! This means that you will need to reinstall and go over the process all over again. If one day after an update you see that Windows is showing as not activated again, then that means that KMS Pico’s system file edits have disappeared.
There’s really nothing else you can do but remove KMS Pico from your system and download and install it again. This is why we recommend you keep an antivirus-excluded folder on your PC that has the KMS Pico executable always saved for backup. Who knows, when you re-attempt to download KMS, you might end up downloading a malware variant.
