Question re win10 formating

chili

chili

chili

Associate
Joined
19 Mar 2011
Posts
827
As above
i purchased a rog g751jt laptop sept 2015 it came with windows 8.1 pre installed, i think the key was tied to the bios (i did not physically have a key written on anything nor did i have an install cd). Soon after i upgraded windows 8.1 to windows 10 this was activated and have i not looked back.

Now i like to format my drives once in a blue moon and do a complete clean install of windows, so given the above scenario what are my options? i am going to assume i have a windows key on my pc somewhere, do i need this? or if i were to just format and install win 10 would it activated itself again automatically? i would not be adding or changing any of the laptops hardware.

thanks
 
If you check your current activation status, it should say "digital entitlement". This means microsoft has a fingerprint of your machine in their systems and it should activate automatically without you having to do anything.

You don't have to enter a key during setup. There is an option to skip it with a "i don't have a key" button.
 
ok so not been clued up on that process i googled it and opened a "run" box i typed in the cmd slmgr.vbs /dlv this produced a box in windows that showed me some various bit and bobs related to my install, there are a few mentions of the word retail.

https://gyazo.com/6b23baf2580ead87d946f1507c62c7c5

https://gyazo.com/66800e5bf090be7d3fe597d7de1096b4

as i said this machine came to me with windows 8.1 which i upgraded to windows 10, in fact the machine was purchased from overlockers here :)

ah-ha now i have found the bit your describing and yes it says digital entiltlment

thanks

so i can just format, install windows 10 from an iso and it will validate and activate itself....correct?
 
Last edited:
chili said:
ah-ha now i have found the bit your describing and yes it says digital entiltlment
Click to expand...

Yep, it should be in the main "modern" settings dialog under activation. I don't have the exact steps to hand because I'm slumming it on 8.1 at the moment.

Since you've confirmed that, you're good to go.
 
Maybe Nirsoft's produkey tool will nonetheless report the original 8.1 oem key from the BIOS ?
I noted the oem vista key before moving to retail 7 and will imminently note a 7 oem key before I try out 10 - but yes - an Overclockers receipt for an oem license is bankable, if you had to call MS
 
Click Start-Settings-Recovery.

You can then allow the computer to reinstall Windows on its own, no need for the ISO.
 
chili said:
but will that do a complete wipe clean format install?
Click to expand...

That is my understanding of what it does. You can also ask it to refresh windows but leave all your files in tact, but the option does say it reinstalls Windows.
 
If you do a reset, presumably,
- it will keep any current drivers (potentially for the worse)
- any malware that might have embedded itself in the OS files could remain
- if the reset is from an OS that was itself updated from 8.1 -> 10 remnants of the 8.1 may remain (beyond the windows.old) in registry and elsewhere (I have this after an earlier vista->win7 updated)

I am currently preparing a win 7 ISO myself to perform a clean install , as an alternative to reset, and hopefully this will give me a more stable system.

... so I am with Chili on this, if you are prepared to invest the time/learning to prepare the ISO it will give a more stable system,potentially faster too (if you do not have an SSD anyway, with OS files located optimally )
 
jpaul said:
If you do a reset, presumably,
- it will keep any current drivers (potentially for the worse)
- any malware that might have embedded itself in the OS files could remain
- if the reset is from an OS that was itself updated from 8.1 -> 10 remnants of the 8.1 may remain (beyond the windows.old) in registry and elsewhere (I have this after an earlier vista->win7 updated)

I am currently preparing a win 7 ISO myself to perform a clean install , as an alternative to reset, and hopefully this will give me a more stable system.

... so I am with Chili on this, if you are prepared to invest the time/learning to prepare the ISO it will give a more stable system,potentially faster too (if you do not have an SSD anyway, with OS files located optimally )
Click to expand...

This is also my train of thought a reset, must keep some remains of whatever you are wiping clean so you are not petentially getting a clean install, this is just my opinion not a fact.

thanks for all the replies and advice
 
All you need to do is use Microsoft's Media Creation tool, which will create your Windows 10 installer on either a USB device or DVD. Then you boot from it and install. You don't need to put in your key it will automatically activate once installed. Just make sure you pick the version of 10 that you're entitled to (ie. Home or Pro) when installing.
 
3 problems so far with win 10 install -

- MS's wonderful media creation tool did not work for me - it errored out on the verification step with no message, I used the windows 7 usb iso creator instead which revealed that usb 'autorun' disable feature in the antivirus was incompatible, I then found this had created old style mbr not uefi style install, Used rufus tool to build a good one, without retrying MS tool
- Found I had only downloaded an American English version of the win 10 ISO at the point the win 10 install started, but kept with it (did offer a UK keyboard option though)
- (much more problematic) install was on a new disk; then attached the old win7 disc (2nd slot) to copy across some stuff ,
found that all of the admin account stuff would not copy with the MS file browser, it said I did not have permission and failed to generate an elevated UAC . (did not want to forcibly take ownership on win7 disc in case this made that unusable for boot)
Eventually found that freecommander file browser I normally use, when launched with 'run as adminstrator' worked around issue.

- also found that for new ssd system disk (that I partitioned in 3 of ntfs , for win7/win10/user-files with win7 tool) win 10 would not install into a partition, I had to delete a partition and then win 10 would install into the unallocated space the deletion created (should have partitioned with gpart ?)

.. currently playing with the Edge browser in windows 10 - seems like a dumbed down browser versus IE11 (I will have to google to find our where all the config options went)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom