Windows 10: How do I see my product key?

Delly10 - there is an incredibly easy solution. Since you want to use USB flash drives, you will need two of them. You will need one 8 GB in size and one big enough to hold the image of your computer system (your 64 GB flash drive).

On the 8 GB flash drive create a Windows 10 installation USB using the Microsoft Media Creation Tool. You want the option to create installation media for another PC:
Windows 10

Once the Media Creation Tool has made the Windows 10 installation USB flash drive for you, then read my quoted note in the middle of the OP to this thread:
Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk - Windows 10 Forums

That 8 GB flash drive will now do everything you could possibly want to do. To get the boot.wim file from Kyhi's recovery drive you download the ISO for it. In Windows 10 you right click on the ISO file and select Mount. A new virtual drive letter will open containing the contents of the ISO file. The boot.wim file is in the sources folder.

Then you can create a system image of your computer using Macrium Reflect to save the image to your 64GB USB flash drive. If it is formatted as NTFS, Macrium will save the image file as one big file. If the flash drive is formatted as FAT32, it will split the image file into 2 GB chunks.

The 8 GB flash drive created will do clean installs of Windows 10, it has Macrium Reflect on it to restore the system image from and also create the system image. Running the Windows 10 setup.exe file on it will give you all the recovery tools on a standard Windows 10 recovery USB. It's got MiniTool Partition Wizard to play with your partitions.

 

I currently have a singe 4GB flash drive, but I use that for my daily activities. I guess I have to go out and buy still another one unless this option you're talking about doesn't delete everything I currently have on it. Does it?

Also, where is the option to create installation media for another PC in the first link you gave? How much of the 4GB drive would it use? I was previously told that I'd need at least 16GB, but it looks like what you're saying is a different way of doing it. I printed out your post and will see if I can follow all of it.

Another thing: I brought my laptop with me today because I was intending to finally download all the programs I wanted to have. I'm at the public library where they have Wi-fi. If I do that, is there a way to still create a system image backup that doesn't include all those programs? I wanted to keep the size down. Otherwise, I still can't use my computer.

EDIT: Now I'm using my laptop and have been trying to download and install Macrium Reflect. I downloaded it, but now it won't complete installation. It keeps giving me an error message saying another process is installing and that I have to wait for that one to complete. It's been quite awhile and it's still not allowing me to complete it. Task manager shows there are no other installations taking place. I ended up having to cancel the install. So what other options do I have?

 

When the Media Creation Tool creates the Windows 10 USB flash drive it will delete everything existing on the flash drive.

You download the tool itself from the link under "Need to create a USB, DVD or ISO". That's what you want to do, create a USB. Then when you run the tool you will get options for upgrade this PC now, or make an installation drive for another PC. You select make it for another PC.

It will use most of the 4GB - something like 3.85 GB if I remember correctly.

Sort of. A system image will copy everything on the laptop - all installed programs and user data files. What you can do, which is almost as good as making a system image, is make the Windows 10 USB flash drive with the Media Creation Tool on an 8 GB flash drive instead of a 4 GB flash drive. Then make a folder on the flash drive called Drivers (or whatever you want). Then on the laptop right click the start icon (the Windows symbol, left side of taskbar). Select Command Prompt (Admin). In the Command Prompt (Admin) window run:

dism /online /export-driver /destination:E:\Drivers

The part in red will be the drive letter of the USB and the folder you created on it. That will copy all the drivers for the laptop that did not come with Windows to the USB flash drive. You know have a flash that you can boot the computer from, do a clean install of Windows 10 from, and re-install any drivers for the hardware that did not come from Microsoft with Windows.

Follow my procedure to make the Windows 10 USB flash drive combined with Kyhi's recovery drive. Boot the computer from the USB flash drive and it will boot into Kyhi's recovery drive which contains Macrium Reflect that you can use to create the image.

When they say it takes 16 GB to make a recovery drive from the laptop that is because it is saving the Windows installation image, all the extra drivers from the laptop, and all the manufacturer's software that came with the laptop from the factory.

 

I personally have given up on the "create an Image" process partly due to the continued updates to Windows and the software that is continually added as time goes on. How many images do you really need. I found it easier to back up my files and programs. One Drive and Google make it easy to access when needed.
Just burn a Windows10 dvd if that's easier and if you have a dvd drive.
Windows 12 will be out soon. j/k

 

I'll try to follow everything you said. But now I need to figure out what exactly "Kyhi's Drive" is. This is just getting to be too complicated.

 

That sounds a bit like what I did with my previous computer. I created a system repair disk and an image backup right when I first got it. The image took 4 DVD's. Then my hard drive failed after only a year and I had to replace it. Then I restored my image onto the hard drive, but many features and drivers were missing somehow. It took over 2 months of asking questions to get it working right again--and even then, I had to run it in test mode to make it work right for the next 4 years until it died.

Now I just bought a Win10 computer and thought things would be so simple. It doesn't even have Windows Word Starter on Excel Starter on it anymore, so now I can't open any of my documents! It looks like there's an option to download them, but I discovered that it's only for a one month trial. I think this will be my last computer. Just not worth the hassle.

 

LibreOffice opens MS Office documents...

 

I'll get that then. Thanks! I was afraid it was just for Linux, but it looks like it works for Win10 as well.

 

Word and Excel come in universal versions that are free (Along with PowerPoint, OneNote and others). They don't have every feature of the desktop versions, but they work pretty well if you don't need a lot. They're called "Word Mobile" and "Excel Mobile"

 

Are those the same as what they used to call Word Starter and Excel Starter? I had those on my previous computer and they had everything I wanted.

 

No, these are new versions designed for Universal apps.

 

I finally managed to create the Recovery Drive using the Win10 tool in my computer. It took more than an hour to complete. But then I got a big surprise afterwards: It turns out that my "64GB" flashdrive is actually a mislabeled and mispackaged 32GB drive, which means I won't have enough space on it to put my system backup image on it. Just one disappointment after another with this process! At least I got Macrium Reflect installed. I had to shut down and restart the computer to get rid of whatever process was stopping it before. But now I won't have a use for it since I don't have enough flash drive space anymore. Buying another "64GB" drive could very well get me another mislabeled 32GB one, and that wouldn't be enough room to put my backup on. Id need about 43GB now.

 

Have you checked the flash drive with MiniTool Partition Wizard? Microsoft software will only format 32GB of the flash drive. You probably have another 32GB unallocated space on it.

Best Free Partition Manager for Windows | MiniTool Partition Free

 

Delly10.. your 64gb flashdrive is probably formatted FAT32 which is size limited to 32gb. Format NTFS would give you the whole 64gb on the drive

 

What I can tell you for sure is that when I go to "My Computer" and then plug the flash drive into a port, it shows up as Recovery G:, and then it says, "24.2GB free of 31.9GB". This tells me that 7.7GB has been used out of a total of 31.9GB. Wouldn't this mean it's a 32GB drive?