How to know if I am running cracked windows 10?

moosag · 1 Week Ago

Hi

A long time ago (2018?), I bought a used laptop from someone. I am not sure if it was using legit windows 10 or cracked. I started using it as is.

January 2023 for some reason that I don't remember I needed this laptop back to brand new. I think I installed a software and it was a mess and I saw no other way out.

Now I have started to feel paranoid that this laptop was never clean and all this time someone has been watching me. What I am trying to figure out is which of the following I did January 2023

1) did I go to windows 10 reset funtionality (the thing that asks do you want to also clean drive), thereby keeping the possibly cracked windows 10 installed by the seller?
or

2) did I insert windows 10 USB, format the hard drive, and install legit windows 10?

is it possible to tell the difference between these?

currently running 22h2

MisterEd · 1 Week Ago

A legal copy of Windows 10 should be activated. To find out if it is...

Open Settings
Go to Update & Security
Select Activation

If Windows 10 is activated then it should show "Windows is activated with a digital license".

How to know if I am running cracked windows 10?-eh_activation.jpg

moosag · 1 Week Ago

MisterEd said:

A legal copy of Windows 10 should be activated. To find out if it is...

Open Settings
Go to Update & Security
Select Activation

If Windows 10 is activated then it should show "Windows is activated with a digital license".

except 90% of cracks are also activated

garlin · 1 Week Ago

If it's a name brand PC (Dell, HP, Lenovo, ASUS), it has a factory license in the BIOS. Though it might be cracked if someone changed from Home to Pro, which requires a different key.

MisterEd · 1 Week Ago

moosag said:

except 90% of cracks are also activated

There is an easy way to see for sure.
1. Download the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool
2. Use it to create a Windows 10 setup on a flash drive
3. Boot with the flash drive and do a clean install of Windows 10

When you go online Windows 10 should automatically try to activate itself. If not you can try the activation manually. In any case if the status shows "Windows is activated with a digital license" then Windows 10 is legal.

Even if Windows 10 turns out not to be legal you can always buy a cheap Windows 10 Pro key online for about $20 US.

bro67 · 1 Week Ago

There is no such thing as a "cracked" copy of windows these days. Either it is activated or non-activated. Those activated with Enterprise licenses can use slmgr /dli Generic keys are free. Even if the copy of Windows you have is not activated, it will still run, just have certain features that will not be able to be used until you activate the copy.

Berton · 1 Week Ago

Usually checking with https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us with the Express Service Code [on a sticker or maybe in the BIOS] will describe what the machine shipped with.

alphanumeric · 1 Week Ago

bro67 said:

There is no such thing as a "cracked" copy of windows these days. Either it is activated or non-activated. Those activated with Enterprise licenses can use slmgr /dli Generic keys are free. Even if the copy of Windows you have is not activated, it will still run, just have certain features that will not be able to be used until you activate the copy.

As far as I know, Enterprise won't activate with a Generic Key. Not unless it has already been activated with a MAK and has obtained a Digital License. In the old days they would activate Enterprise via fake KMS server. That to me would be a cracked system.
For Windows 10 Enterprise it's either MAK or KMS activation. Windows 10 Pro and Workstation can I think also be activated via MAK or KMS. I'd have to go look at my product codes list and see what I got with my Microsoft MSDN subscription and see if I got any MAK keys for those editions.

Cracked or not, I'd be more worried about what other bits of software might be installed. Trickery might have been used to obtain the current Digital License, but now that it has one, it has one. It should activate with that digital license on a clean install. A clean install would also make it malware / spyware free.