Please help. W7 activation issue after downgrade and SSD upgrade

Hi all,

I just bought a Lenovo X140e, which comes with Windows 7 Professional preinstalled through downgrade rights from Windows 8 Pro. I setup the computer fine under W7, then proceeded to install W10 so I could get the "hardware license" for Windows 10. At the moment, I don't want W10 on this laptop.

After activating Windows 10 on it, and making sure the license is activated, I installed an SSD on the laptop, however now I cannot activate Windows 7. I downloaded a W7 Professional ISO and put it on a USB using Rufus. The install goes okay, but Windows 7 is now asking me for a license key. Where is it? The bottom of my laptop only has a Windows 8 Pro sticker, there's no product key sticker.


Please help! How do I find my Windows 7 key?

I don't know if this will give you the key you need but it's probably your best option at finding it,

Showkey - Windows 10 Forums

Kari said:

This suggestion is a personal opinion based on logics more than knowledge but in your case I would try restoring the laptop to factory condition (Windows 8.1 Pro), then check if the downgrade rights to Windows 7 still work. If not I am afraid you need to buy Windows 7 license in case Lenovo support is not willing to help you.

Kari I think you misunderstood. This computer SHIPPED with Windows 7 Professional, but according to Lenovo, that license for W7 is available because of W8 downgrade rights. This laptop has never seen Windows 8 installed on it.

derekimo said:

I don't know if this will give you the key you need but it's probably your best option at finding it,

Showkey - Windows 10 Forums

I had completely forgotten about ShowKeyPlus. Thanks for the link.

ShowKeyPlus says this, though:

"
Installed Key: A KEY
OEM Key: A KEY
OEM Edition: Invalid Key
"


Any ideas? I tried putting both the Installed Key and the OEM Key in the activation window. The Installed Key gave me an error that says: "The product key you have entered appears to be a default product key and cannot be used for activation. Type a different Windows 7 Professional product key."

When I used the OEM Key, I got an error that said the license was invalid after typing in the second block of numbers/letters.

This is what I see after typing in the "Installed Key" from ShowKeyPlus into the activation window:

Superfly said:

You have a Windows 8/8.1 key in the bios ( ShowKey can't yet read the post-Win 7 editions on Win 7 systems and reports Invalid)

To determine the Win 8 key edition run ShowKey on Win 8 or 10 and use the check product key function with that OEM key.

The Win 7 OEM licence is on the removed HDD - if you have that you can get Win 7 from there via an image backup or by retrieving certain licensing files.

Thanks a lot for your reply. Right now I'm restoring the laptop to factory settings using the 4 DVDs that I created using Lenovo's recovery software, which I created before starting this mess.

Kari said:

Do you have the factory reset option, can you restore the laptop to factory conditions? If the downgrade was already done by manufacturer this might get your Windows 7 back.

This is what I'm doing right now.

Once this recovery is finished, I should be on Windows 7 with all of the bloatware and whatnot on my SSD. Will ShowKeyPlus be able to give me my real Windows 7 key then? The original HDD of this computer has been formatted already and I have it currently installed in my desktop for extra storage.

Superfly said:

Good on you for taking backups...

ShowKey will show the Win 7 OEM key but it's a Lenovo generic key - Win 7 OEM licences entail a SLIC table in the bios and matching licensing certificate intalled together with the key for the edition concerned.

PS: For a custom (non-bloatware) install, after current restore, search for *.xrm-ms and extract that file.
You can then fresh install Win 7 Pro from vanilla iso - install the generic key SkowKey gives you and thn install that certificate ( slmgr -ilc [path].xrm-ms) - then run slmgr -ato to activate.

Alright, the restore finished and I'm back to W7 with Lenovo bloatware but at least with a working and activated W7.

I ran ShowKeyPlus and the "Installed Key" is different from the one that I screenshotted above. So if I reinstall W7 (for a clean install) and use the key in "Installed Key", it will not activate? What do you mean that it's a "generic Lenovo key"?


EDIT: I just googled the key... Yup, definitely looks like I'm not the only person in the world with this key!


Oh well........ I guess I'll just stay with the bloatware and uninstall as much as I can... I don't care that much for a clean install anyway. Thanks a bunch to everyone for your help.