Hi CrunchyEarthMama, and welcome to the forum.
The first item I’d recommend is reviewing which version of Scrivener your license is for and comparing that to the version that’s actually installed.
That is, Scrivener 3 for Windows has its own, separate license and is a paid upgrade from Scrivener 1 for Windows. However, we offer upgrade discounts for users who had Scrivener 1 licenses and are interested in upgrading to Scrivener 3.
Assuming that your license is for the version of Scrivener installed on your PC, the next items I recommend reviewing are your Windows security settings and the quarantined lists for any anti-virus, proxy, firewall, or VPN tools you’re using on your PC.
I’m suggesting that because those programs often install updates in the background. Those updates could cause Scrivener or one of its components to be incorrectly flagged in the quarantined lists as suspicious. I’ve had that happen on past help tickets, so it’s a good first step to eliminate obvious issues.
Another option you can test is to run Scrivener as an administrator. To do this, please right-click over the Scrivener icon on your Desktop and select ‘Run as administrator’ and register. Next time you launch Scrivener normally it should stay registered.
If neither of those suggestions resolves the activation issue, then you may want to reboot your computer into Safe Mode with Networking and activate Scrivener in that mode.
The steps for rebooting in Safe Mode with Networking are available here.
The Safe Mode with Networking will deactivate any tools that are blocking Scrivener, but it will still be able to connect to the servers. Then, you can reboot your computer as you normally would.
If Scrivener continues to fail to activate its license after trying those suggestions, you may want to open a help ticket. For Windows tech support, please send an email to: scrivener-win@literatureandlatte.com.