Yeff wrote:
On Fri, 5 May 2017 00:50:14 -0000 (UTC), John & Jane Doe wrote:
The main question right now is how best to proceed to get rid of all the
stuff from the previous owner WITHOUT destroying the Windows 10 license?
If the Win10 OS is a legitimate install it should already be activated
with a digital license linked to the Microsoft account you're using.
That means you can wipe the drive, install a fresh copy of Windows 10,
and it should automatically activate once you verify yourself as a user.
Still, if you want to be safe, use the Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder:
Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder
https://www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder/
This will get you both the installed OS product ID as well as the 25
character CD Key. The CD Key is what you really want. You can use the
program to save the information to a text file or print it out. Or
both.
Next you'll want to get the Windows 10 media. Use the Media Creation
Tool to make a bootable DVD or USB flash drive. You can also use the
tool to just download the Win10 .iso and install from the
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
Have the new Win10 install wipe everything from the drive before
installation and use the saved CD Key to activate it if you need to.
Are you sure about this ?
There *is* a tool which will recover the qualifying key (the key of
the Windows 7 OS), as well as the bogus generic key a digital entitlement
install does.
If you buy a Win10 key, then magicaljellybean will likely recover
that key for you. I don't doubt that part.
But magicaljellybean, unless they changed it recently. probably
doesn't recover both keys, in the first scenario.
When digital entitlement is used, there shouldn't be any direct
evidence of a Win10 key. The slmgr /dlv command can give some
numeric identifiers, which may help if you're on the phone with
a Microsoft representative, attempting to re-activate after
a motherboard swap. Other than that, I'm not sure the key extraction
method, applied to the current (so-called) key, is of much use to you.
If you see 3V66T for example, and Magicaljellybean also recovers 3V66T,
that tells you the key is not real. 3V66T is the generic Win10 Pro
key, which is not a real key for any purpose. It's decorative.
These are examples of keys that aren't likely
to do you much good. You can test them if you like,
but don't expect slmgr /dlv to indicate you're
activated.
XKY4K-2NRWR-8F6P2-448RF-CRYQH (Windows 8 Professional)
RR3BN-3YY9P-9D7FC-7J4YF-QGJXW (Windows 8 Professional with Media Center)
FB4WR-32NVD-4RW79-XQFWH-CYQG3 (Windows 8 [Home])
XHQ8N-C3MCJ-RQXB6-WCHYG-C9WKB (Windows 8.1 Professional)
GBFNG-2X3TC-8R27F-RMKYB-JK7QT (Windows 8.1 Professional with Media Center)
334NH-RXG76-64THK-C7CKG-D3VPT (Windows 8.1 [Home])
VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T (Windows 10 Professional) --- my X79 homebrew
YTMG3-N6DKC-DKB77-7M9GH-8HVX7 (Windows 10 Home - multi language) --- my Acer laptop upgrade
BT79Q-G7N6G-PGBYW-4YWX6-6F4BT (Windows 10 Home - single language)
*******
This is the algorithm for pulling an encoded key from the registry.
MagicalJellyBean should be doing this.
https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/...er-an-upgrade/
But this is only the one level, and on a Digital Entitlement install,
is likely to pull the 3V66T bogus key.
*******
This is the two-level key finder. It can show the
qualifying key, and the current (bogus or otherwise) key.
https://www.tenforums.com/software-a...owkeyplus.html
I got the ref to it, here.
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/...dows-10-a.html
These are the results of that software, on
two computers here.
https://s14.postimg.org/c9z59d68x/fu...Win10_keys.gif
I haven't exercised all the functionality of that tool,
but right now, in my two examples, there isn't
too much I "should be writing down". My COA sticker
on the Acer is still readable, so I don't
need ShowKeyPlus for that one.
And the generic keys, are useless. They're about as
valuable, as the generic keys on SLIC activated
Win7 or older computers.
The *original* key is useful, if you needed to generate
a digital entitlement. And people are still reporting
they are able to perform the "free upgrade". You can
enter the Win7 key or Win8.1 key during a free upgrade,
and that is used to generate the Digital Entitlement
record on the MS Server. But on a reinstall, the mainly
bogus nature of what you're going to pull from the
Registry, makes the server-side Digital Entitlement the
most important part. (As it auto-activates on a
clean reinstall, without any keys needed.)
Paul