Windows 10 Pro Product Key

sweetgirl2015

Hi.
Hubbys son bought a very expencive gaming computer, its a desktop but not sure of the brand. 
It cost £800 on ebay and at first he was very pleased with it, ran all his games etc great.

Then he ran into a virus, so downloaded a copy of windows 10 via a mediation tool on the official windows site, and done a fresh installation.

This is the problem, he set it all up, and at first thought he cured everything and started re-loading games, software and everything, that was until he had a notification asking him to activate Windows, so he was wondering why did he have to do that being a bit nieve, so looked everywhere for a product key which was by now what the messages were asking for.

But no product key can be found, not stamped on the computer on the box, nowhere to be found.

So basically he was sold a computer with a non activated windows pc.

What now can he do because its probably too late now to complain to the seller on ebay, he bought it last year. 

Neil_Jones

You don't need a product key.  Just get a new version of Windows 10 and reinstall with Pro.  That's it.

If the licence was genuine then reloading 10 Pro will reactivate it.  10 only uses keys for first installation.  After that it's digital.

Also you probably didn't need to wipe the machine just to clear the virus either.

forgotmyname

If it was not activated you would have had a nag screen where it says activate windows for additional features. Microsoft would
rather you used it like that than pirate it.

That would have been annoying on a gaming PC, so I assume it was activated. Maybe a local account only?

Have you contacted the seller?  A bit late to complain but a decent seller will probably have the info saved.

Neil_Jones

forgotmyname said:

That would have been annoying on a gaming PC, so I assume it was activated. Maybe a local account only?

Makes no difference to the activated state out of the box.  If you sign into an MS account you can transfer a licence but if it came with 10 before you even got that far, it would have been obvious from the off if it wasn't activated.

neilmcl

sweetgirl2015 said:

Hi.
Hubbys son bought a very expencive gaming computer, its a desktop but not sure of the brand. 
It cost £800 on ebay and at first he was very pleased with it, ran all his games etc great.

Then he ran into a virus, so downloaded a copy of windows 10 via a mediation tool on the official windows site, and done a fresh installation.

This is the problem, he set it all up, and at first thought he cured everything and started re-loading games, software and everything, that was until he had a notification asking him to activate Windows, so he was wondering why did he have to do that being a bit nieve, so looked everywhere for a product key which was by now what the messages were asking for.

But no product key can be found, not stamped on the computer on the box, nowhere to be found.

So basically he was sold a computer with a non activated windows pc.

What now can he do because its probably too late now to complain to the seller on ebay, he bought it last year. 

Did he download and install the correct version of W10, did the PC have W10 pro installed in the first p[lace?

Also, was this a new PC or a used one from a private seller?

pbartlett

If the PC you bought originally had W10 Pro on it then you need to re-install Pro

If it had Home Edition then you need to install the Home version.

What is the make and model of the PC - it may have a recovery partition on the drive which you can use to factory-reset the device

Laz123

Here's a few choices on a windows product key finder https://www.majorgeeks.com/content/page/mg_search.html?cx=partner-pub-6960825562757852:6029691205&cof=FORID:10&ie=UTF-8&q=windows+product+key+finder&sa.x=0&sa.y=0&siteurl=www.majorgeeks.com/&ref=www.google.com/&ss=11064j5997710j28

ann_droid

Perhaps...  
There may be a registry entry...

Computer
\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SoftwareProtectionPlatform

BackupProductKeyDefault   3XXNV-YXXXD-3XXX9-TXXXR-XXXXD

I never understood the Backup part as I have never found any other entry in the registry.

Cisco001

I think Windows 10 key stored in BIOS in new PC?

pbartlett

when you first activate windows 10, a hash is taken of your hardware and stored on microsoft's windows activation servers.

thus even with a subsequent complete re-install, windows will be automatically activated as the servers will recognise the device

sweetgirl2015

We have come to the conclusion it wasn't windows pro on the pc, it was probably the home edition.
So need to reinstall it all again and try the home edition.