Windows 10: accessing Windows 11 digital product key from a nonfunctioning computer

Hello!A few months ago, my laptop called it quits and I decided to build a desktop instead of fixing it. It does not turn on, and I've already had a computer repair man help grab my documents, pictures, and gaming files off of the device. Though I still have the broken laptop and the rest of the computer data on the now removed hard drive he gave me, I'm not sure how I'd go about trying to grab the windows product key from it in its current state. When I bought the laptop in 2019, it came with windows 10 home and I then did the free upgrade to windows 11 home recently before my laptop keeled o

:)

 

product key availability

When Windows 10 or 11 is first activated on a computer with a product key, a digital gets created which is stored both on the local computer and on Microsoft Activation servers. The digital license is based on the unique Hardware ID of the computer (which is 99.9% the motherboard only) and the edition of Windows 10/11 installed. When Windows 10/11 boots every time it calculates the Hardware ID of the computer it is booted from. As long as the Hardware ID stays the same, Windows 10/11 will stay activated on its own because the digital license stored on the computer matches the Hardware ID. If you move that installation of Windows 10 to a new computer, the Hardware ID will no longer match the license stored in Windows, and it will look for a matching digital license stored at Microsoft that does match the Hardware ID. If it finds a matching digital license at Microsoft, Windows will download it and activate itself. The digital license stored at Microsoft is permanent. There is nothing any user can do to remove it.

As long as that digital license exists at Microsoft, anytime that the same edition of Windows 10/11 is re-installed on that computer, the Hardware ID of that computer will be sent to Microsoft over the internet and the digital license will be retrieved, Irregardless of who installed it or if they used a MS Account or not, or how many times Windows 10/11 has been re-installed on that computer. MS does not block digital licenses. Microsoft will block product keys to keep them from being used on too many different computers to "buy" new digital licenses for more computers than they are supposed to be. However, using a product key to get the digital license the first time is an entirely separate process from reactivating Windows 10/11 using a previously created digital license.

 

Digital license & product key details

• Hi, I'm running Windows 10 already and received an upgrade notification from Microsoft but can't install it because I don't have the Product Key or Digital Licence details

 

Windows 10 product keys and activation - and the KMS angle

Changing the product key to the generic Windows 10 product key will reset activation to the standard retail channel for activation. It might just activate (if there was a previous digital license for Windows 10 for that computer established with Microsoft). Once Windows 10 is back on the retail activation channel, then more than likely changing the product key to the Windows 8 product key using the same method may work.