Windows 10: Bought used "win 10" computer missing hard drive: problem activating win 11

I bought a used computer that had the hard drive removed. It was not OEM so no sticker on case. It was x299 chipset and I had a similar Dell system, win 11, so I tried booting it up using the Dell's backup drive. I thought I could skip the step of installing 10 and doing an upgrade. The activation app thinks I made a hardware change and I suspect that my Dell system will have problems if I confirm the hardware change. It seems I have to install 10 first. Is that right?Maybe the system did not have window 10 or 11 on it after all? I had read that the license went with the system, but I co

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Win 11 - No "direct" way to show documents that are ONLY ON MY HARD DRIVE?????

My Win 10 computer died and so I purchased a new Dell with Win 11 installed.

The first thing I'm noticing - having installed exactly one program (Quicken) on the computer - is that Win 11 seems to absolutely INSIST that I use OneDrive, for all my documents, even if I don't want to. I created a Quicken folder on my hard drive and copied my date there. While attempting to correct this I noticed another difference in Win 10 vs. Win 11 behavior that I find vexing.

In Win 10 clicking on File Explorer > This PC > Documents I saw a list of folders and files that lived exclusively on my PC. In Win 11 clicking File Explorer > This PC > Documents brings up folders and files that live on OneDrive and it DOESN'T show the the Quicken folder I created on my PC.

Is there any way of adjusting things to get File Explorer operating as it did on the Win 10 computer? I can get to that Quicken folder on my hard drive by going through OS (C > Users > etc. but I have to believe I'm missing something here.

 

Win 10 activation

I did the upgrade to Win 10 from a legal win 7 and all went smoothly and activated. There was a driver issue with a serial port card which could not be fixed and was imperative to my work so I moved my hard drives to a different tower. Now win 10 is no
longer activated and gives me no alternative option than to purchase a license key. Any suggestions?

 

Win 11 Activation Problem with Win 8.1 Key

Hello, I have original win 8.1 key. I have used win 11 without problem by upgrading from 8.1 with my old pc. Now I have built a brand new pc including all hardwares. I installed win 10 & 11 directly. Setup asked product key and I entered 8.1's, installation continued. After setup completed, I have realized either win 10 & 11 are not activated. I have tried to activate by entering the org. 8.1 key it failed. Message was "Unable to activate windows, you dont have a valid digital license or produc key..." I thought that culprit might be directly installed win 10 & 11. Then, I have installed win 8.1 first to try upgrade upon it but unfortunately came across another problem. There is no internet connection. I transfered my mobo LAN driver setup file via usb. It could not be installed because I saw my new mobo LAN driver doesnt support win 8.1, only win 10 & 11. Actually it's LAN driver is pre-installed and doesnt work. I just tried to setup again anyway.

To sum up:

I cannot activate win 10 & 11 with a win 8.1 key if I install them directly.

If I install win 8.1 first I cannot connect to internet to activate win 8.1 (due to mobo LAN driver support) and then upgrade to win 10 & 11 whatever.

How can I fix this problem? I think there must be a solution. I dont know if direct win 11 installation & activation possible with a win 8.1 key though.

Do I have to buy a new win11 due to a LAN driver problem? I dont want to be forced to select this option.

Your help much appreciated.