Retrieving original activation key for windows

Hello!

I bought a demo-pc in 2014 that came with win8, but i was unable to log in as i did not have the password, so i flashed windows 10 insider build. But i am tired of all the bugs, so i want to get the regular windows 10 build now.

Does anyone know how i can do this? I do not know the serial key, but shouldn't it be embedded in the BIOS? The PC is an HP Envy touchsmart 14.

Can i just format, flash an win8 img, and then the PC will automatically retrieve the activation key by itself?

Run Showkey Plus from this forum:
Showkey - Windows 10 Forums

NavyLCDR said:

Run Showkey Plus from this forum:
Showkey - Windows 10 Forums

Thanks, very helpful!

The latest RTM build of Windows 10 (build 10586 AKA the November update) should read the Windows 8 product key in bios and use that for activation, IF you install the same edition (IE: Home, Pro, N, Single Language - whatever matches the product key). If you start a clean install and the Windows 10 version you are installing matches the product key in bios it will not ask you for a product key or what version you want to install. So, if you get asked for a product key, you know you have the wrong version/edition of Windows 10 downloaded.

You can get Windows 8.1 from here, if you want to go back to 8.1:
Create installation media for Windows 8.1 - Windows Help

NavyLCDR said:

The latest RTM build of Windows 10 (build 10586 AKA the November update) should read the Windows 8 product key in bios and use that for activation, IF you install the same edition (IE: Home, Pro, N, Single Language - whatever matches the product key). If you start a clean install and the Windows 10 version you are installing matches the product key in bios it will not ask you for a product key or what version you want to install. So, if you get asked for a product key, you know you have the wrong version/edition of Windows 10 downloaded.

You can get Windows 8.1 from here, if you want to go back to 8.1:
Create installation media for Windows 8.1 - Windows Help

Thanks again. Only got two options when downloading, so i chose the non-N version of win 8.1. I guess it means i download the core version, wich is what i have a key for.

Baguett said:

Thanks again. Only got two options when downloading, so i chose the non-N version of win 8.1. I guess it means i download the core version, wich is what i have a key for.

As long as it doesn't say Core Connected. That would be Windows with Bing, which you can't download from Microsoft. But Core Connected will upgrade to standard Windows 10 Home.

Also, if you mount the ISO file you downloaded in Windows 10 or Windows 8 - let's say you get a virtual drive letter of E:. In an elevated ("run as administrator") command prompt you can enter:

DISM /get-wiminfo /wimfile:E:\Sources\install.wim /index:1

and
DISM /get-wiminfo /wimfile:E:\Sources\install.wim /index:2

that will tell you the versions of Windows contained in the image that can be installed with it. E:\, obviously changes to whatever drive letter you got when you mounted the ISO file. Windows 8 and 10 typically only have two versions in each install file, but you can try index:3 and above and see if there are more included. Windows 7 will have like 6 different versions.

The above commands will also work after you have burned a USB flash drive or DVD from the ISO file or directly with the Media Creation Tool. Although - download an ISO file with Windows 10 Media Creation Tool and the install.wim file will be install.esd, just change the file name in the above commands to match it.