Windows 10 activation info?

Bree said:

If you click the 'Get it from Microsoft' logo just beneath the Official Release link it takes you to the Microsoft Store website where you can get the App version of ShowKeyPlus version 1.1.14.0.





Yes, they do the same job, but the Store app version 1.1.14.0 has new features. In addition to all that 1.0.7060 does, it can show your upgrade history and any keys that they had. This can be used to find the original Windows 7 key on a machine that has since been upgraded to Windows 10 (even if it has then been through several Feature Updates).

The Preview Release is identical to the Store app in function and looks and shares the same source code, but the code been updated a little to version 1.1.14.4298 in the Preview Release. The biggest difference between the Preview Release and the Store app version is that the Preview was compiled to be a conventional .exe file (so you can just put it in a folder and run it from there, same as you can with 1.0.7060) while the Store app is installed and updated through the Store.





In light of your discovery Superfly has updated his post #1. The Official Release is now 1.0.14.1 with all the same features as the Store app, and 1.0.7060 is now named as a Legacy Release.

Yes, the Official, Preview and Legacy releases are portable apps that require no install. You could put any of them on a USB and run them from there. Just delete them when you no longer need them.

Thanks for explaining the differences. I will probably just download it from the Store the next time I need it. I used to use Produkey at one time but I saw that a lot of users on here were using ShowKey so I started using too

sportsfan148 said:

I will probably just download it from the Store the next time I need it. I used to use Produkey at one time but I saw that a lot of users on here were using ShowKey so I started using too

Probably because it is so well supported by Superfly. If you skim though the ShowKeyPlus thead you'll see that many of us, myself included, have helped test and debug early preview releases.


The advantage of the Store app is that it gets updated automatically like any other Store app.

The advantage of the standalone .exe is that you can run it from a usb on another machine.

The advantage of the Legacy versions is that they will run in the WinPE environment, so you can boot a corrupted machine from a recovery usb and as long as hard drive is readable recover the installed key.

Bree said:

Probably because it is so well supported by Superfly. If you skim though the ShowKeyPlus thead you'll see that many of us, myself included, have helped test and debug early preview releases.


The advantage of the Store app is that it gets updated automatically like any other Store app.

The advantage of the standalone .exe is that you can run it from a usb on another machine.

The advantage of the Legacy versions is that they will run in the WinPE environment, so you can boot a corrupted machine from a recovery usb and as long as hard drive is readable recover the installed key.

Clear and concise description of the pros and cons of which version to use...cheers mate

Bree said:

Now that is weird if this was a clean install. It means that Setup must have read the key from the firmware in order to use it as the installed key.

Yes, Setup can tell from a key what edition it should install. Only if it doesn't know what edition to use would it ask for a key. I had assumed until now that it was a failure to read your key that caused the prompt, but @alphanumeric's theory that "the algorithm Microsoft uses to read the key was upgraded at some point" could mean that while it can still read the key, it can't determine the edition from it.

A test for that would be a clean install using old install media from a build that had previously not asked for a key. If it still doesn't ask for a key then it's a bug in the newer install media, not a hardware issue in your PC. I'm not suggesting either of you should try that immediately, but next time either of you need to reinstall it would be an interesting experiment to try.

I'm subscribed to this thread, so I'll see your results as and when you ever get round to trying....

Hi Bree. Im just posting back to give you further info as you requested. I was getting the Activation screen popping up during the clean install of Windows 10 using Media Creation Tool version 1909 OS Build 18363.592. After a few weeks I started to have a couple of problems with my clean installation so I ended up clean installing Windows 10 again on Saturday morning. This time, using an older version of 1909 OS Build 18363.418 that I had created back in December using the Media Creation Tool. I had clean installed with this build a couple of times before and had never seen the Activation Screen popup when clean installing with this build.
On Saturday morning this slightly older version of 1909 (OS Build 18363.418) clean installed without the Activation screen popping up

Thanks for the update @sportsfan148