Pre-installed Windows 7 - No COA key (RANT)

[Haggisman]

Ordered a new company Lenovo laptop last week, standard setup is to wipe and reinstall a nice clean Windows 7 Pro using the key from the laptop - no problem.

Except this one came with Windows 7 pro downgrade licence from Windows 8. No key.

So I phone Lenovo asking for the key - after all, we've paid for this licence and should be entitled to use it. Apparently not. The conversation went something along these lines:

Me "Hi, I need the activation key for the windows install on this laptop but there's no COA"
Them "as an anti-piracy measure it's embedded into the BIOS"
Me "so if I want to re-install the OS, how do I get the key?"
"Them if you reinstall the factory OS it will pick up the key automatically"
Me "and if I don't want to restore the factory settings, but instead want a fresh install, how do I get the key?"
Them "you can't, if you want to install a different OS, you need to buy a key for it"
Me "but I've paid for a Windows 7 key with this laptop, i'm not installing a different OS, i want to install the same OS but without the bundled software"
Them "in that case you need to buy a new key - it's an anti-piracy measure"
Me "so let me get this straight, because of an anti-piracy measure, I now need to find a pirate key for windows 7 if I want to be able to use the software I've already paid for"
Them "yes, is there anything else I can help you with?"

Honestly - have these companies not learned anything from the AC2 fiasco? Just another case of honest customers getting shafted while pirates get a stress free experience and carry on regardless.

I'm also curious as to how this would work with a Microsoft Audit. We recently had one, and were asked to prove our licencing by providing a sample of keys - how on earth would we do this if we weren't allowed to see what the keys were?

 

[tribz]

Had this with a HP Win8 Pro / Win7 Pro downgrade with came with Win 7 Pro 64 bit installed. As I need to use an app that wont work with 64 bit, I thought I could just extract the key and use it on a 32bit fresh install. Wouldn't activate with the preinstalled key and wouldn't even go to telephone activation. Had to buy a Win7Pro 32 bit in the end. Bit frustrating.

 

[Haggisman]

Had this with a HP Win8 Pro / Win7 Pro downgrade with came with Win 7 Pro 64 bit installed. As I need to use an app that wont work with 64 bit, I thought I could just extract the key and use it on a 32bit fresh install. Wouldn't activate with the preinstalled key and wouldn't even go to telephone activation. Had to buy a Win7Pro 32 bit in the end. Bit frustrating.

And yet if you'd pirated it in the first place it would have saved you about £200

 

[nightmare99]

Wouldn't activate with the preinstalled key and wouldn't even go to telephone activation. Had to buy a Win7Pro 32 bit in the end. Bit frustrating.

You would need to insert the digital certificate into windows if using their pre-installed key, this would allow SLIC activation to take place.

 

[Bint Box]

Just download a copy of Windows 7 from MSDN or elsewhere, check the hash to make sure it is clean and then install it. Skip the part where it asks for a key, it will proceed OK.

Then after the install, load the Lenovo OEM Win7 key and Lenovo Certificate from a command prompt, job done.


Rgds
Bintos

 

[Haggisman]

Where do I get the key and certificate?

 

[tribz]

Just download a copy of Windows 7 from MSDN or elsewhere, check the hash to make sure it is clean and then install it. Skip the part where it asks for a key, it will proceed OK.

Then after the install, load the Lenovo OEM Win7 key and Lenovo Certificate from a command prompt, job done.


Rgds
Bintos

That didnt work. There isnt an OEM key on the box, just the preinstalled key in the OS which wouldnt activate as per my above post.

 

[Bint Box]

Where do I get the key and certificate?

The Lenovo OEM Win7 key is well documented, Google is your friend. The SLIC that is coded in the BIOS will accept this provided you have loaded the digital certificate via a command prompt window before inputting the key via the same command prompt window.


Rgds
Bintos

 

[nightmare99]

That didnt work. There isnt an OEM key on the box, just the preinstalled key in the OS which wouldnt activate as per my above post.

Yes that is the key you need to use in conjunction with the digital certificate to achieve bios activation.

 

[tribz]

Yes that is the key you need to use in conjunction with the digital certificate to achieve bios activation.

Thanks, do you know if this is likely to cause activation/genuine problems down the road or is the installation fully Microsoft blessed once this is done?

 

[marc2003]

Thanks, do you know if this is likely to cause activation/genuine problems down the road or is the installation fully Microsoft blessed once this is done?

if it goes belly up for one person, it would also affect every other single person using that OEM. that's not going to happen. your hardware is your proof of entitlement.

as mentioned above, you need to find the license file (file extension .xrm-ms), apply it at the command line using slmgr and enter the generic product key. restart. job done.

it's the very first thing i did when i got an advent laptop. it only came with a crappy restore disk and it was full of crap but i already had a good MSDN ISO and finding the file/product key online was a 2 minute job.

 

[mranderson]

Just a way to make you stick with 8

 

[tribz]

if it goes belly up for one person, it would also affect every other single person using that OEM. that's not going to happen. your hardware is your proof of entitlement.

as mentioned above, you need to find the license file (file extension .xrm-ms), apply it at the command line using slmgr and enter the generic product key. restart. job done.

it's the very first thing i did when i got an advent laptop. it only came with a crappy restore disk and it was full of crap but i already had a good MSDN ISO and finding the file/product key online was a 2 minute job.

Great info, thanks!

 

[Xez]

If you want to do it "correctly" as we have had massive issues deploy business PC's like this. Apparently you have to get the Activation ID once it's loaded into pre-installed OS. Then call MS for a downgrade key just to install Windows 7.

Massive pain!

 

[Haggisman]

Just a way to make you stick with 8

There is not a hope in hell of that happening within at least 18-24 months.

If it becomes too much of a hassle, all it's going to do is push me to use one of the no-activation cracks on the base image...

What an excellent way of encouraging piracy.

 

[ZXSpectrum]

One of the pre requisites of them supplying a customer with a downgraded licences is that the end user has a windows 7 licence. It doesnt matter if its on another machine. Just install using that key, attempt to activate and when it doesnt go through (Quite often does) call the telephone system and when you speak to someone tell them that you are using this key to download from windows 8. You can also download a little app called "Advanced Tokens Manager" get into the OS and run that and it will backup the activation to a file and give you your product key. Then you just reinstall, fire up that program again and restore activation and away you go

 

[Haggisman]

One of the pre requisites of them supplying a customer with a downgraded licences is that the end user has a windows 7 licence. It doesnt matter if its on another machine. Just install using that key, attempt to activate and when it doesnt go through (Quite often does) call the telephone system and when you speak to someone tell them that you are using this key to download from windows 8. You can also download a little app called "Advanced Tokens Manager" get into the OS and run that and it will backup the activation to a file and give you your product key. Then you just reinstall, fire up that program again and restore activation and away you go

Which is great until you have to do it on 30 machines at once...

 

[ZXSpectrum]

yeah i see what you mean. But if they are all the same spec, do one and restore the activation then image to the rest of the systems Pretty much exactlly what they do.