Find Product Key in Windows 10  

Lysias18 said:

So I should be able to pop in a new ssd into my laptop and boot from a USB that has a copy of windows 10 and it'd activate it automatically? I have windows 10 home right now, but its on a slow hard drive

Hello Lysias,

Only if you had already "upgraded" to the free Windows 10 Home from an activated Windows 7/8.1 on that PC first. This way the activation will be registered at Microsoft for the PC for the free Windows 10.

Otherwise, no. You would need to do the above.

Hello bruteforce, and welcome to Ten Forums. :)

When doing a clean install for the free Windows 10, you would want to "Skip" entering the product key number during Windows Setup to have it activated. The activation of the free Windows 10 on your PC is registered on Microsoft activation servers, and will automatically activate when installation is complete.

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/1...n-install.html

You do not get a product key with the free upgrade of Windows 10. Instead, it's just a generic key for installing that cannot be used to activate with.

The activation for the free offer of Windows 10 is registered on the Microsoft activation servers, and is referenced by the hardware (motherboard/CPU/graphics card) of the PC it was upgraded on.

I guess that would explain why both my Win 10 Pros have the same "key". One was an upgrade from 7 and the other from 8.1 on the same PC.

That would have come in handy on the second remote case I have here when swapping out the old memory and seeing the activate in 3 days reappear for a day or so. I removed the 4gb of Mushkin Enhanced for the new 8gb of Kingston Hyper X Fury and watched as 10 reactivated itself automatically being a minor hardware change while if this had been a recent install of 7 as seen once before I would have had to call into MS to have the previous version reactivated!

When running the tool be sure to use the save option a few times one in a local folder outside the usual found in the Windows.old users, Program Files, Program Files(x86) as well as on a separate drive if you have one! You could even print it out for safe keeping if you should end up needing to repair or replace the existing 10 install sometime later and after next July! Good for the long term haul!

Hello Joya, :)

Unless the PC came preinstalled with Windows 10, the OEM key in UEFI firmware chip will not be used.

The information in the blue note box at the top of the tutorial on the first page and below can help with activation.

Activate Windows 10

blackbirdabhi said:

Hi When I used ShowKey Plus, My installed key shows up as BBBBB all the way. What does that mean?

Hello blackbirdabhi, :)

If this is for a free Windows 10, then you will not have a product key available for it.

Instead, the PC gets registered on Microsoft activation servers with a digital entitlement to activate Windows 10 with.