Just when we thought the Windows Subscription Activation saga was finally over, Microsoft threw us a new curveball last week: the 0xD0000272 error. The August updates offered a promising fix for the persistent “Access Denied” error during license upgrades. However, in the unpredictable world of IT, things are rarely that straightforward. With this new 0xD0000272 error showing up last week, devices are downgrading to Windows Pro again, leaving us right back where we started. Luckily, the issue is now already resolved, but that doesn’t mean I can’t write about it.

The “HandleAccessDenied” Fix: A Band-Aid on a Bigger Wound?

Let’s take a step back. The “HandleAccessDenied” feature, initially rolled out in July and fine-tuned during the August updates, was intended to resolve a persistent problem with upgrading devices from Windows 11 Pro to Enterprise. The root cause was often tied to MFA-related registry keys that ClipRenew had difficulty creating, triggering a series of errors that kept devices stuck in Pro mode. Rudy Ooms from call4cloud.nl has extensively covered this issue in his blog, offering detailed insights into the troubleshooting process.

For a while, it looked like this fix was working. Devices began successfully upgrading to Enterprise, and it seemed like Microsoft had finally conquered this particular subscription demon. But exactly a week ago (02-09-2024), a new error code began popping up: 0xD0000272.

Error 0xD0000272: A New Challenger Appears

This mysterious new error started showing up in the LicenseAcquisition task logs, much to the frustration of IT administrators everywhere. While initially baffling, it soon became clear that this was not a regression of the old issue but rather a new temporary glitch, likely related to Microsoft’s subscription activation services being overwhelmed or momentarily unavailable.

Interestingly, while I was looking at what was happening, on 05-09-2024, reports began to emerge that the issue was resolved.

Almost as if the activation servers needed a quick breather before they could successfully process the requests. Hopefully this was just a temporary hiccup in the transition.

Spoiler Alert: The Saga Continues?

With the subscription activation services back to work, it appears that Microsoft is still hard at work tweaking the ClipRenew process. A little birdie, or, in this case, a deep dive into the code revealed that Microsoft is planning to shift the SubscriptionStatus registry key to a new location.

Let me explain why this new Subscription registry key caught my attention. After adding similar permissions to this, as we did with the mfarequiredincliprenew register key, this subscription status key showed up!

This subscription move might be part of a larger strategy to streamline or change the subscription activation process, but it also signals that we’re not quite done with this Cliprenew saga yet.

In the screenshots (shown above), you can spot the registry key manipulations and the new code paths that suggest this shift is already in motion. While it’s too early to tell how this will affect the broader landscape of subscription activation, one thing is clear: there’s more to come.

Why do I think so? Well, if you look at the “LicenceType” and combine the words UBS and DBS with it, things could become interesting.

Another funny thing to add is that we are still not done! Even when Microsoft fixed the issue, we still needed to challenge ourselves to bring devices back to Enterprise, even with the August update installed.

New Challenges: Devices Struggling to Return

Now, as a teaser for an upcoming blog, let’s talk about a frustrating issue many admins are encountering: when devices drop down to Pro, they can sometimes face unexpected challenges when trying to return to Enterprise. In some scenarios, devices fail to re-upgrade smoothly.

Even when those devices have the August update installed and should uplift their License again to Enterprise, something is blocking the upgrade.

Do you want to know more about how to fix it? (even when it’s a stupid fix) keep an eye out for the next blog