How to install W10 with BIOS embedded P/K?

point decay · 7 Jul 2016 at 13:15

Hey folks

I am about to install an SSD in a friends Dell XPS 8900 (replacing the existing HDD), The PC has no COA on the case, and AFAIK it is embedded in the BIOS.

Because of this, will W10 just skip the step where it asks for a P/K? during install.

advice appreciated.

TIA

El_Watcher · 7 Jul 2016 at 13:37

Did it come with Win10 installed originally, or did it come with 8 and you have previously done the update tot 10?

I reinstalled a Lenovo laptop that had 8.1 on it, and installing 8.1 detected the BIOS key, then the 10 upgrade activated without issue.

Why not just try it and see what happens?

tom_e · 7 Jul 2016 at 13:40

Should be fine and just skip the manual entering of the key it's how most are set up these days.

point decay · 7 Jul 2016 at 13:41

El_Watcher said:
Did it come with Win10 installed originally, or did it come with 8 and you have previously done the update tot 10?

I reinstalled a Lenovo laptop that had 8.1 on it, and installing 8.1 detected the BIOS key, then the 10 upgrade activated without issue.

Why not just try it and see what happens?

yeah, came with w10 installed (its only 6 months old),
Ive not tried it as its not in my possession yet, just trying to be as prepared as possible having never tried an install without a COA before.

tom_e · 7 Jul 2016 at 13:44

If it came with Win10 installed then you'll definitely have no issues, if it's still got a working OS on it you can grab the key from the BIOS just in case.

point decay · 7 Jul 2016 at 13:50

tom_e said:
If it came with Win10 installed then you'll definitely have no issues, if it's still got a working OS on it you can grab the key from the BIOS just in case.

ah right, I was unsure as I thought that only retail keys could be pulled from the registry, as this is OEM I didnt think it would be visible.

tom_e · 7 Jul 2016 at 13:51

You don't pull it from the reg you can get programs that pull it directly from the EFI BIOS IIRC, it's been a while since I messed with a Windows machine.

point decay · 7 Jul 2016 at 13:58

tom_e said:
You don't pull it from the reg you can get programs that pull it directly from the EFI BIOS IIRC, it's been a while since I messed with a Windows machine.

cheers, I'll look into that.

jpaul · 7 Jul 2016 at 21:12

nirsoft's produkey thats the program I use, grabs any Office key too.