Can I tell if Win 10 was originally installed on my enterprise laptop

Bree · 22 Dec 2016

Bree said:

...It looks like it would have been supplied with Windows 7, maybe 8 if late in the production run...

That would seem to be the case, as Lenovo says...

Each Lenovo B50 comes preinstalled with Windows 7 Professional

Windows 7 Laptops | Affordable Lenovo B50-80 | Lenovo US
...on the Features tab for this model, only to contradict themselves on the Tech Specs tab.

Operating System

Windows 8.1

Windows 7 Laptops | Affordable Lenovo B50-80 | Lenovo US

Presumably the specs page was updated in its lifetime, but they forgot to do so on the Features page. Or maybe you got a choice of OS at the first 'out of the box' power up.

bjk896 · 23 Dec 2016

Folks
Thanks for persevering with an old fella. I know now i cant proceed other than a clean install of Win 10 and that makes it a lottery about activation cos ShowKey wasn't able to tell me anything. Thanks for all your help and some extra knowledge was shared. As for going back to my IT people (Person) the one involved is no longer with us and all knowledge went with him.

alphanumeric · 23 Dec 2016

Only Windows 8/8.1 and 10 use OEM embedded keys. Those keys are permanently stored in the BIOS. If they are there, showkey will find them, regaurdless of what OS is on the device. Assuming the utility will run without errors on the OS installed. I do believe its usable on Windows 7.
Windows 7 and earlier use an OEM marker in the BIOS. It's an identifier, but no actual key is stored there. If you upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 8 or 10, showkey can still find the old key. Windows stores to another location during the upgrade process. If Windows 8 or 10 was clean installed on a Windows 7 PC the Windows 7 key is lost, it was only ever stored in the Windows registry.
Enterprise throws another wrinkle into things as it only ever activated with a Volume License key. And it does not qualify for the free upgrade, aside from the fact that the free upgrade offer is over. It didn't qualify in the first place.

Is there a COA sticker on it anywhere? Don't forget to remove the battery and look in the battery compartment.

Matthew Wai · 23 Dec 2016

bjk896 said:

ShowKey wasn't able to tell me anything.

Did it show what I had guessed in post #7?

Superfly · 23 Dec 2016

bjk896 said:

ShowKey wasn't able to tell me anything.

Matthew Wai said:

Did it show what I had guessed in post #7?

I don't mind detractors to the app. but please be a bit more specific.

Obviously Win 7 Enterprise will be shown as the installed version...but there is more pertinent information that's required.

An OEM machine should show either a marker or a key under OEM key. That will tell what that PC was built for.