Activating Windows

sjp1966 · 6 Apr 2017 at 11:32

I need some advise on activating windows.

My son bought a PC off of one of his friends a little while back it had Win 7 Pro 64 bit on it, He did the free upgrade to Win 10 that microsoft was offering and that was all great until he had some issues with the machine and we needed to rebuild it.

When he bought it from his friend he didnt have a disc, and when we looked on the case for the activation key, they sticker was not there. Get get around this for the time being we used my win 7 disc but of course we now need a key.

We cannot use mine because it is my key against my PC
We dont have a sticker with an activation key
The friend does have a record of the activation key either
I called Microsoft, they dont sell Win 7 anymore

I cannot think of a way to get a legitimate win 7 pro 64bit key to reactivate his machine and then do the Win 10 upgrade again.

Any advise would be appreciated.

Thanks

ZXSpectrum · 6 Apr 2017 at 11:45

Unfortunately you are pretty stuffed. The Choices you have are buy a Windows 10 Licence, buy a Windows 7 Licence if you can find one or get a dodgy key from off the internet... Or... have a look round the machines at your work and see if one will activate. Chances are that they are installed from a image so the key would not be used.

Broken Hope · 6 Apr 2017 at 13:33

If you haven't changed the hardware just install from a Windows 10 ISO and just skip the product key, it will automatically activate.

Orcvader · 6 Apr 2017 at 14:35

As above, if Windows 10 was already reported as activated after the 7->10 upgrade, then it won't need a product key. Just install 10, skip the product key part and as soon as it connects to the internet it will activate itself.

Rroff · 6 Apr 2017 at 14:44

Orcvader said:
As above, if Windows 10 was already reported as activated after the 7->10 upgrade, then it won't need a product key. Just install 10, skip the product key part and as soon as it connects to the internet it will activate itself.

Depending on what rebuilding was done it might not recognise the machine any more.

And I really don't recommend "looking around at work" for an unused key unless you happen to own the company or something :s

Glanza · 6 Apr 2017 at 15:21

Unless you've changed the motherboard you should be ok reinstalling 10 and skipping the part where you enter a key.

ZXSpectrum · 7 Apr 2017 at 11:31

Doesn't that only work if the system has the keys saved into the UEFI BIOS?

Orcvader · 7 Apr 2017 at 11:33

ZXSpectrum said:
Doesn't that only work if the system has the keys saved into the UEFI BIOS?

Considering I reinstalled 10 on my system a couple of times, and there's no stable UEFI BIOS for my board, no not really. Microsoft uses a unique identifier for your system instead of keys.

Drizmod · 7 Apr 2017 at 13:03

Done this plenty of times on my x58 machine. Got ISO fro Windows 10 from Microsoft onto a bootable USB and reinstalled windows and skipped enter key section and it gets activated the moment I get an internet connection

stoofa · 7 Apr 2017 at 13:17

ZXSpectrum said:
Doesn't that only work if the system has the keys saved into the UEFI BIOS?

Nope.
The "hash" of your system has been saved in the MS activation server. When your newly installed system hits the activation server, your machine is located, found to have a license for Windows 10 and activates automatically.

Confused Stu · 7 Apr 2017 at 22:25

ZXSpectrum said:
Doesn't that only work if the system has the keys saved into the UEFI BIOS?

Two different activation methods, mate. Some pre-built machines have the Windows 8 key saved into the UEFI BIOS and a Windows install or 8/8.1/10 will pick this up and use it automatically.

The one the others are referring to is the one Stoofa explained, when a 7/8.1 machine is updated to Windows 10, a "hash" of the system configuration is taken and stored by Microsoft as being a validly updated to 10 machine. If you later need to re-install Windows 10, you simply tell the setup process you don't have a key and as soon as the machine goes online, Microsoft will check the hash of the machine against their list. If it's on the list, bingo - your Windows to activated. For practical reasons, this usually means the motherboard needs to be the same but you're free to change other components, but for obvious reasons Microsoft isn't very clear about exactly what is an acceptable change to still be activated automatically and what's over the line.