Windows 10 broke on my Laptop

theaudioanalyst said:

Okay I agree with, you are right about that as you want to read it. The problem is that what you read will only work if one has Windows 10 started and running and then it doesn't ask for a license. The only other option is a fresh install outside of Windows 10 and as I showed, a license number is required.

A license number is NOT required! You never answered my question in post #8:

NavyLCDR said:

You do have a license for Windows 10 from Microsoft. You just don't have a product key. And since you don't have a product key, why not just click the link at the bottom of the screen that says, "I don't have a product key"?

If a license number (product key) was required, then they would not have put the option to continue without it in the form of the link at the bottom of the screen that says "I don't have a product key." Hundreds of us members of this forum have done clean installs of Windows 10 without product keys by simply clicking on that link that 100% accurately describes our situation, "I don't have a product key."

I searched for "WINLOAD.*" and MS will not give me access to it. So I can not try my last option!
Now, to recap. I Win 10 is running one can run a full ISO install and no license number is currently required. If you are outside of Win 10, a full install, a fresh install REQUIRES A LICENSE NUMBER as shown above. The repair DVD does not, cannot or will not copy a new "WINLOAD.EXE" to the hard drive. So MS has created a paper box with a 5 ton elephant sitting on it. They seriously need real computer systems analysts to help them. These are not insurmountable problems, just some thought! Yes I am frustrated. Sorry!

theaudioanalyst said:

i searched for "winload.*" and ms will not give me access to it. So i can not try my last option!
Now, to recap. I win 10 is running one can run a full iso install and no license number is currently required. If you are outside of win 10, a full install, a fresh install requires a license number as shown above.

No it doesn't!

Click on the dang link that says "I don't have a product key"!!!!!

Make yourself a fresh Windows 10 installation DVD or USB flash drive from a freshly downloaded ISO file (or let the Media Creation Tool create one for you). Boot the computer from it. Click the dang link at the bottom of the screen that says "I don't have a product key" because, guess what, you don't have a product key AND A PRODUCT KEY IS NOT REQUIRED in your circumstance of re-installing Windows 10 onto a computer that has already been successfully upgraded to Windows 10 in the past. Hundreds of us members of this forum have done clean re-installs of Windows 10 exactly that way, and probably hundreds of thousands of people worldwide have.

Or take the laptop to a computer repair shop and pay them $50 (if you are lucky) to install Windows 10 on it by doing the exact same thing.

Okay YOU WERE RIGHT TOTALLY.

The process installed and I am installing the other software and so far so good. Trying to access and fix the hard drive killed the Toshiba HD. I just put in a 1TB SSD and it is amazingly fast. So while I have lost access to some software permanently, I don't care as the author is an imbecile to say the least and I have replaced his ridiculous software with far better software. I am going to use the Toshiba HD for target practice

Obviously we both misread it. MS has an elephant sitting on a paper box screwing the public if a hard drive fails or in this case if their software through their actions (updating without a request) fails and in this case their repair function killed my hard drive (SSD now in there). Wonderful, just plain wonderful!

Sorry I uploaded one picture. Don't know where the others came from! Stu

Okay, got a hold of a MS Tech whom was very talented and understood quite well and he got on my machine and fixed it!