I am about to purchase a new laptop but would like to remove all the bloatware. I would like to use the windows refresh tool. Since this is a purchased computer with windows 10 installed , will the refreshtool request for activation keys that probably I wont have ? I dont dare to try unless I have all the information on hand. Tks
You can freely reinstall Windows 10 as many times as you wish. No key needed. The digital activation is based on one of your machine's hardware id's, allowing you, for example, to swap your drive without impacting your activation.
Refresh is not as major step as a clean install which means deleting Windows partitions, and optionally formatting your disk. (Windows iso's are freely downloadable).
See e.g.
Reset Windows 10 | Windows 10 Tutorials
and linked documents from the Tutorial section.
The new laptop will have a Windows 10 Product Key stored in UEFI which Windows 10 will read and automatically activate with. If you want to see the product key, use ShowKey Plus:
ShowKeyPlus - Windows 10 Forums
Unless you are trying to install a different edition of Windows 10 (such as installing Pro on a computer that was manufactured for Home), you should never even be asked for a product key.
This is my computer, it originally came with Windows 10 Home and has the Windows 10 Home product key stored in UEFI. I had to use my own product key to upgrade it to Pro which then results in it switching to the generic Pro Product Key once it gets the digital license established on MS Activation Servers. NOTE: you cannot use the generic Windows 10 Pro product key shown to do the upgrade with.
Thank you NavyLCDR . I guess the same holds for AIO Computer ?
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