Windows 10: restoring original activation status - returning laptop to ebay seller

Hello, my first post on this forum.

I bought a laptop from a private seller on ebay. Unfortunately, there are too many issues with it which were not mentioned in the description, so it does need to go back to the seller as "not as described". I don't want the seller to be worse off than necessary though, so I want to restore windows to how it was when I got it.

However, I do not fully understand how the activation works - I've never had to look into this because I've just used my company laptop as my main machine so far

When I first powered it up, the win10 login screen displayed a generic username (laptop, thinkpad or similar) and didn't require a password. All I needed to do to get to the desktop was click something like "start now" or "sign in".

I followed these instructions: https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/...ardware-change and reinstalled windows (I had some reservations about doing this but it's recommended in many places including here https://home.bt.com/tech-gadgets/com...11363937195187).

I think the Activation status before I first added my account was "Windows is activated with a digital license" - but I am not 100% sure. So the key question is this: If I remove my microsoft account from the laptop, will it return the activation status to how it was previously? Or is there something else I need to do?

I'm afraid I do not have my version number - the laptop's at home and I'm in the office. I'm hoping this doesn't make a difference. I did install all the updates when I reinstalled though.

:)

 

Malwarebytes on ebay

Ebay is NOT an authorized seller. Authorised sellers are NOT allowed to sell on eBay.

 

fake n95 on ebay???

Totally fake. Report it to ebay and they will remove the listing and ban the seller.

 

Activating a skipped license on Windows 10


I recently got myself a bargain of a deal on a used MSI GX60 laptop from a seller on eBay. It came and is in pristine condition, almost new! I did however have one minor problem with it which the seller is not insisting on helping me with.

The listing described itself to have Windows 10 pre-installed onto it, and that the recovery partition was still working, etc. That's all well and good - until when I powered it on I saw it had Windows 8.1 Enterprise installed - I thought, okay maybe the seller just factory restored it for me to keep his data safe, no problem, but then when I tried to factory restore it again, it would say there was missing media - the recovery partition wasn't usable even after checking with the reagentc command. The thing that confused me most however was the fact that it came with 'Enterprise', an activated one at that. I have my suspicions it was probably pirated as I have no idea why a gaming laptop would come with a business OS!

To keep this short (as I already irrelevantly babbled above!), the seller suggested that I install a clean Windows 10 installation onto the laptop, skipping the part where it says to enter a license, and the seller says it will activate itself even without a license key after a few days. How true is this? It doesn't seem like something that's very believable. Is anyone able to confirm this or give any input?

Many thanks!