Windows activated itself.

[PaulCa]

I installed a new hard drive in my laptop, installed Windows 10 Home. During install I clicked "I do not have a product key".

I went on ebay and found a cheap key, but when I went to use it the "This PC -> Properties" has a product key and says windows is activated already.

I even ran: slmgr.vbs /dli

And it shows as Licensed and "RETAIL channel".

All I can think is the Windows 8 license that came on the laptop when I bought it has been picked up.

Is this normal? My cheap ebay key will expire in a few days, should I change the product key or give it to a friend? (Alternatively should I tell the seller it didn't work and ask for a refund?)

 

[PaulCa]

Additionally I didn't sign into my Microsoft account, even the Updates and Security->Activation screen shows no Microsoft account linked.

Someone mentioned that Samsung and other laptops save the windows product key in BIOS so that windows can find it. So all I can assume is it picked up my old Windows 8 license and allowed the upgrade.

Still a little unsure though. Is it likely MS could retract the activation later?

 

[Orcvader]

Because the motherboard has already been activated with a valid 10 licence, in your case from a free upgrade from 8. Microsoft knows this and will reactivate it as soon as it gets online. You don't have to sign in to a Microsoft account for Windows to reactivate itself, you only usually do if you're moving to a different PC and want to transfer the licence over.

 

[bremen1874]

Because the motherboard has already been activated with a valid 10 licence

Not necessarily.

I recently installed Windows 10 onto a Dell laptop only licensed for Windows 8 and it activated without any issues. It had never had a previous Windows 10 upgrade.

I've also installed Windows 10 onto several PCs using the Windows 7 OEM keys from their stickers. These hadn't had previous Windows 10 upgrades either.

 

[Stoner81]

Not necessarily.

I recently installed Windows 10 onto a Dell laptop only licensed for Windows 8 and it activated without any issues. It had never had a previous Windows 10 upgrade.

I've also installed Windows 10 onto several PCs using the Windows 7 OEM keys from their stickers. These hadn't had previous Windows 10 upgrades either.

+1

I use OEM keys all the time at work to activate W10 without issue either W7 or W8 ones they both work still.

Stoner81.

 

[PaulCa]

I think it shows how much money MS is making out of their Spy ware that they are effectively give it away for free for any machine that has previously had Windows 7 or 8 installed.

 

[demonix]

If you had a product key coded in the BIOS then you wouldn't have had to go through any licence key entering procedure as the installer would have picked up on it and selected the respective version of windows 10.

It's more then likely that if you had windows 10 installed previously, then the hardware ID would have already been registered with microsofts servers and would automatically activate once a connection to the internet was establised.

 

[ZXSpectrum]

They key (or associated SSID) Is saved into the BIOS. So on fresh boot with a new image it can request that info from the bios, check it against the one they have recorded on their systems and if it matches it will activate.