Windows CD !!

sam1970

My new dell desktop came without any media disc ( I know they dont send them these days) but being old fashioned I always wanted to have a copy of the OS in case of emergency. I managed to persuade dell to send me one and I received it today. The disc says (operating system- Already installed on your computer- Windows 8.1 recovery media for windows 8.1 products-64-bit - to be used only in dell computers). my question is how can i find the activation code? or will it find it automatically in the computer eventhough it did not come with the computer?...sorry if it sounds stupid question

NiftyDigits

It is 'hard wired' to the PC.

gjchester

sam1970 wrote: »

my question is how can i find the activation code? or will it find it automatically in the computer eventhough it did not come with the computer?...sorry if it sounds stupid question

As mentioned its stored in the BIOS, but it may also be on the certificate of Authenticity sticker on the PC too.

rizla_king

How did you persuade them to do that? thought they wouldn't any more. would feel better if could get one for sons laptop rather than rely on recovery partition or manually created disks working. have had them fail on some computers in the past so would like a dell CD as an extra if they can be persuaded.

sam1970

To be honest I received a message when I was on the computer to update the dell recovery tool ( came installed from dell).. I clicked yes but something went wrong and the tool stopped working. I phoned dell who tried to reinstall it ( they were looking at my computer screen while on the phone) without success.. Asked me to contact them if I ever need to reinstall windows but i said I was not happy with that so they offered to send me the os cd. They also sent me the cd for all the drivers

sam1970

gjchester wrote: »

As mentioned its stored in the BIOS, but it may also be on the certificate of Authenticity sticker on the PC too.

So can I use the dell cd to reinstall windows 8 on my Samsung laptop which did not come with media cd ( obviously will keep a note of the laptop windows key- I guess I should find it under control panel - system)

rizla_king

Ah that makes sense.

System

sam1970 wrote: »

So can I use the dell cd to reinstall windows 8 on my Samsung laptop which did not come with media cd ( obviously will keep a note of the laptop windows key- I guess I should find it under control panel - system)

Not necessarily. Dell CDs tend to be 'keyed' to Dell machines. They look for the Dell marker in the BIOS.

It will probably either refuse to install or expect you to input a licence code.

The above is based on Dell XP/Win 7 CDs. I don't imagine that they have changed anything to make their Win 8 CD universal

AlecEiffel

Dell sent me a disc for my Windows 8 Inspiron after I asked as their recovery media software kept failing to make recovery discs.


Whenever I have used it for a reinstall it has never asked for the product key. I do however have to do a telephone activation (automated line) as for some reason web activation doesn't work. But the phone activation has never been an issue. It is also a clean install, no branded bloatware, demos, etc.


I do have the product key (I believe it was printed on my invoice maybe) though I've never needed it.

patman99

Belarc Advisor is one of many programs that will reveal the CoA.