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Recover Windows Licence keys...

Swarfendor437

Wed Oct 14, 2015 11:31:47 pm

Manage to sort someone's PC out who had accidentally upgraded to 10 from 8.1 tonight.

Fortunately the machine being HP had a 'factory restore' option, which you access by pressing the Escape (Esc top left of keyboard) at boot time to choose boot options. Now where does the script come in? Well I pointed out that now that they have a DVD without the licence key from here:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/w...-refresh-media

and after a restore use the handy script lower down on this page for when the hard drive eventually fails and you have to install a new one:

* http://www.howtogeek.com/206329/how-...-product-keys/

"This will also prove useful for people running Notebooks with Windows 7 on.

http://www.w7forums.com/threads/offi...wnloads.12325/

Wolfman

Thu Oct 15, 2015 6:58:53 am

Hi Swarf,

isn't the key for Winblows 8 taped to the PC around the back or underneath?. :D

Swarfendor437

Thu Oct 15, 2015 11:58:30 am

It should be - this was a 'display machine' from a large retail seller! Still useful script though for people who don't have install media or the CoA has got damaged on the underside of a Notebook. In this case it was a Tower - only sticker on the back was a 'shiny' 8.1 logo. :shock:

Wolfman

Fri Oct 16, 2015 5:51:05 am

Ah!, I see what you mean now!. :D

Wulffpack

Fri Oct 23, 2015 12:52:57 am

Shiny 8.1 sticker has a secret CoA. Just hold a blacklight close over the sticker. Still need a script to retrieve the key though.

Swarfendor437

Thu Oct 29, 2015 11:48:08 am

Hi Wulffpack, On a square sticker the size of my avatar? :?

aberts10

Tue Jun 07, 2016 4:48:35 am

Swarfendor437 wrote:Manage to sort someone's PC out who had accidentally upgraded to 10 from 8.1 tonight.

Fortunately the machine being HP had a 'factory restore' option, which you access by pressing the Escape (Esc top left of keyboard) at boot time to choose boot options. Now where does the script come in? Well I pointed out that now that they have a DVD without the licence key from here:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/w...-refresh-media

and after a restore use the handy script lower down on this page for when the hard drive eventually fails and you have to install a new one:

* http://www.howtogeek.com/206329/how-...-product-keys/

"This will also prove useful for people running Notebooks with Windows 7 on.

http://www.w7forums.com/threads/offi...wnloads.12325/


I know this is old, but for people I'm the future Windows 8.1 and 10 machine a have the code built into the motherboard. So as long as you don't change your motherboard, you'll have a Windows key.

Swarfendor437

Tue Jun 07, 2016 12:08:40 pm

Well it also works on installed versions of Windows 10 but then there is a 0 day security issue with Windows 10 - backwards compatible to Win2k apparently!:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/06/01 ... for_90000/