Windows 10 licence expiring soon

Poppy_Golightly

In June of this year I bought a refurbished Dell laptop from Ebay. The laptop itself has been fine, no problems with it. However in the last couple of days I've had a message appearing on my screen telling me my Windows 10 licence will be expiring soon.


I've tried to access the product key using Powershell and Cmd prompt but no licence number shows up. I've written to the seller to query this but no reply as yet. The seller has a 100% positive feedback, so I had no reason to suspect any wrongdoing. Can anyone help, is there another way of finding the number?


Thanks in advance.

JJ_Egan

Jellybean used to be the tool to use.

thorganby

Lots of info here:

https://win10faq.com/your-windows-license-will-expire-soon-how-to-fix-it

If you do need to purchase a product key, they are available on ebay for peanuts but you need the correct key to match your version of Win 10 e.g. Home, Pro.

sal_III

Sounds like there is no product key installed and you are running on a trial license.

Do you have a sticker with the product key affixed to the laptop? If so, just try to re-type the key in the Activation settings.

If there is no sticker, did the e-bay listing specify that you are getting a Windows 10 license or did you just assume? If it's the former chase the seller for a key, if it's the latter, still try your luck with the seller and if you don't get it, you can buy one from e-bay on the cheap. Just make sure it's for the same edition or you might have to reinstall your laptop.

Frozen_up_north

Regardless of the Win 10 version on the laptop, you can “upgrade” to Win 10 Pro with a cheap as chips key from one of the many eBay sellers. Win 10 Pro has few advantages for most home users, although Bitlocker is handy to encrypt the hard drive if you are concerned about securing personal data on the laptop. Upgrading from Home to Pro only takes a few mins, quicker than many monthly patches...

Chino

Poppy_Golightly wrote: »

The seller has a 100% positive feedback, so I had no reason to suspect any wrongdoing.

The problem with Ebay's feedback system is that once you've left feedback, you can't change it. So it's possible that many buyers, who left positive feedback immediately after purchasing their computers, a few months later find themselves in the same position as you but can't change their feedback to negative feedback.

J_B

JJ_Egan wrote: »

Jellybean used to be the tool to use.

https://www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder/

DoaM

J_B wrote: »

https://www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder/

Looks like only the paid-for version (Recover Keys) will recover a Win 10 product key.

Poppy_Golightly

I did look and I thought the same.
I've written again to the seller (I live in hope).


This is the link to a similar laptop he's selling and there is no mention of the Windows 10 license expiry date.


https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dell-D430-Notebook-Laptop-Windows-10-Microsoft-Office-WiFi/174095383940?hash=item2888e4bd84:g:wHUAAOSwQG9dtEUZ

sal_III

Yeah it doesn't read as you are getting a licensed Windows 10 copy. Most likely just an evaluation version that expires in 180 days. Which if you bought in June is just about now.

I suspect that the seller you tell you exactly that.

Windows 10 licenses don't expire, you just don't have one, so I wouldn't waste time trying to "recover" what's most likely not there to begin with. This is a 10+ years old laptop it won't have Windows 10 originally, best case scenario it might have windows 7 license sticker, that you can use to activate Windows 10.

Most likely you will have to just buy a windows 10 key from e-bay and activate it.

Neil_Jones

The pictures show that that machine originally came with Vista, so the laptop might not even have a Windows 7 sticker on the bottom, its more likely to be Vista, probably Home Premium which was the most common flavour of that version of Windows. That won't activate anything.

Easiest way of the OP's problem is as stated is just to buy another licence cheaply off eBay which would give a permanent licence for that unit.