Unactivated Windows 10

[foxwelljsly]

I have two W10 laptops with failed hard drives and no licence keys.

I plan to install an SSD and unactivated W10 on both of them.

Will I encounter any issues with installing W10 and not activating it? Is it only a few cosmetic differences?

cheers

 

[gavreid]

I have two W10 laptops with failed hard drives and no licence keys.

I plan to install an SSD and unactivated W10 on both of them.

Will I encounter any issues with installing W10 and not activating it? Is it only a few cosmetic differences?

cheers

You can't customise visual appearance, works just fine otherwise though. You do get a screen reminder too in the bottom rh corner but it's not too invasive. Older licence keys will often work - win 8 for example. Why not take the opportunity to go win 11 if the hardware allows?

 

[foxwelljsly]

You can't customise visual appearance, works just fine otherwise though. You do get a screen reminder too in the bottom rh corner but it's not too invasive. Older licence keys will often work - win 8 for example. Why not take the opportunity to go win 11 if the hardware allows?

I doubt if these will take it - I think they're both running amd a8 processors.

 

[foxwelljsly]

You can't customise visual appearance, works just fine otherwise though. You do get a screen reminder too in the bottom rh corner but it's not too invasive. Older licence keys will often work - win 8 for example. Why not take the opportunity to go win 11 if the hardware allows?

Ah, it appears the digital key is held in the BIOS - which would explain why it just loaded on my lenovo workstation when I upgraded to a SSD.

Let us see if this works!

 

[BillT]

I'm using the same old Windows 7 key on 3 Windows 10 machines at the moment and all are activated. It is a "retail" key rather than OEM so maybe that's the difference.

 

[Darth Vader]

A Win 7 license is still accepted but only on the original hardware on which it came. A retail key allows several moves of hardware but I forget the details.

As mentioned above you don't at the moment need to have Windows licensed to use it. If you don't have a key use the M$ KMS keys to give the version you want even Enterprise which you can't actually buy.

They are on available on the M$ website but to save time here they are:-

Home: TX9XD-98N7V-6WMQ6-BX7FG-H8Q99
Home N: 3KHY7-WNT83-DGQKR-F7HPR-844BM
Home Single Language: 7HNRX-D7KGG-3K4RQ-4WPJ4-YTDFH
Home Country Specific: PVMJN-6DFY6-9CCP6-7BKTT-D3WVR
Professional: W269N-WFGWX-YVC9B-4J6C9-T83GXcmd
Professional N: MH37W-N47XK-V7XM9-C7227-GCQG9
Education: NW6C2-QMPVW-D7KKK-3GKT6-VCFB2
Education N: 2WH4N-8QGBV-H22JP-CT43Q-MDWWJ
Enterprise: NPPR9-FWDCX-D2C8J-H872K-2YT43
Enterprise N: DPH2V-TTNVB-4X9Q3-TJR4H-KHJW4

Of course I activate my KMS keys via a friendly M$ KMS server for several years now. One day M$ may cotton on........ Its not cheating as these are only used to experiment and give feedback as a Windows Insider. My working Windows installations all have valid paid for keys.

Fun eh?

DV

 

[Darth Vader]

I have two W10 laptops with failed hard drives and no licence keys.

I plan to install an SSD and unactivated W10 on both of them.

Will I encounter any issues with installing W10 and not activating it? Is it only a few cosmetic differences?

cheers

When you say 'failed hard drives' can you explain further. If its a hardware failure then thats it but in many cases thats not the reason. Keep the HDDs and use a USB to SATA adapter and see if you can read them on a working computer Apple, Windows or Linux.

I don't like to give up!

DV

 

[garyi]

Just buy a key on eBay if it does not activate, they are like 4 quid

 

[Sloop John B]

Must get my eyes checked I saw “unvaccinated Windows 10”

.sjb

 

[monkfish]

Just buy a key on eBay if it does not activate, they are like 4 quid

Get one off the net, if it doesn't activate it costs nothing.

 

[foxwelljsly]

When you say 'failed hard drives' can you explain further. If its a hardware failure then thats it but in many cases thats not the reason. Keep the HDDs and use a USB to SATA adapter and see if you can read them on a working computer Apple, Windows or Linux.

I don't like to give up!

DV

Nah, they’re just 10 years old. 240gb SSDs are less than £30 each now and W10 is zip fast on them in comparison, so there’s not really any excuse. I have a draw full of old hdds from nas’s and PCs.

 

[garyi]

Get one off the net, if it doesn't activate it costs nothing.

Whilst the act of entering a key into windows is 100% safe, where one finds an activation on the net less so. For 4 quid, I would rather just get one on ebay.

 

[miktec]

Must get my eyes checked I saw “unvaccinated Windows 10”

Possibly the best advert from the best advertising campaign this century:

 

[monkfish]

Whilst the act of entering a key into windows is 100% safe, where one finds an activation on the net less so. For 4 quid, I would rather just get one on ebay.

Your £4 quid one off ebay was probably obtained from the net by some enterprising person, is this an official site with guarantees for £4?

 

[gavreid]

I don't know about £4 but these are legit. A further 25% off everything with discount code: brokensilicon

https://uk.cdkeyoffer.com/ms-windows-10-home-oem-cd-key-global-lifetime.html

 

[Darth Vader]

Nah, they’re just 10 years old. 240gb SSDs are less than £30 each now and W10 is zip fast on them in comparison, so there’s not really any excuse. I have a draw full of old hdds from nas’s and PCs.

I had no intention of re-using old HDDs.

The number of 'dead' laptops that end on my bench without any form of backup which contains years of photos, financial stuff, recipes etc.......... My first port of call is to save what I can and that means block by block cloning as a first step. This can be to a physical HDD/SSD or a virtual disk - I often do both.

In your case (Windows keys) the first step is to look at the computer base where there is in most cases a key sticker. If not it is usually inside the battery compartment after removing the battery. If these keys are not found there is a chance if the HDDs haven't physically failed and can be cloned to recover the clone so that it boots and then use recovery mode to restore a fresh clean Windows install.

DV

 

[foxwelljsly]

I had no intention of re-using old HDDs.

The number of 'dead' laptops that end on my bench without any form of backup which contains years of photos, financial stuff, recipes etc.......... My first port of call is to save what I can and that means block by block cloning as a first step. This can be to a physical HDD/SSD or a virtual disk - I often do both.

In your case (Windows keys) the first step is to look at the computer base where there is in most cases a key sticker. If not it is usually inside the battery compartment after removing the battery. If these keys are not found there is a chance if the HDDs haven't physically failed and can be cloned to recover the clone so that it boots and then use recovery mode to restore a fresh clean Windows install.

DV

Ah, no, there's no data on these that needs to be retained. I have a usb/sata cable in case I need to do this, though.

 

[Darth Vader]

Depending on when these old machines were last used they may auto activate. M$ now keeps info on your hardware and Windows installation. So if you just replace the system disk with the same Windows version as originally it came (home or pro) when you go to activation it'll say 'not activated' so click on trouble shoot activation and this will force the key servers to search for your machine and will often reactivate instantly. This may also happen automatically after some time anyway but its good to know.

DV

 

[garyi]

Your £4 quid one off ebay was probably obtained from the net by some enterprising person, is this an official site with guarantees for £4?

I am not sure what your point is, the person that is selling took the risk for you happy day’s give him four quid all he can do is send you an email with the code in. A code on it’s own is not in the least bit dangerous going places on the net to obtain it can be.

I am confident you won’t argue with me on that one.

 

[garyi]

Depending on when these old machines were last used they may auto activate. M$ now keeps info on your hardware and Windows installation. So if you just replace the system disk with the same Windows version as originally it came (home or pro) when you go to activation it'll say 'not activated' so click on trouble shoot activation and this will force the key servers to search for your machine and will often reactivate instantly. This may also happen automatically after some time anyway but its good to know.

DV

Agreed with this, infact asides from a motherboard swap out I have never lost an activation and I am always fiddling! God knows how they do it but it’s not MAC address as I have changed that via different nics as well.