Windows 10: How to obtain product key in motherboard BIOS?

I'm convinced my brother to finally upgrade his PC. I have assembled his new PC & waiting for him to arrive at my home with his old PC later today so we can remove hardware & install these in his new PC.

All it took was PSU issues with the old PC he purchased from MicroCenter in 2012 to upgrade! It was Windows 7 Pro but free upgraded to Windows 10 Pro. He's not good at keeping documents so we are trying to find if his old PC has the needed product key embedded in the motherboard BIOS which we will need to save him the cost of repurchasing. That might be the case anyway as I'm not sure how MicroCenter is setup with Microsoft for their in-house builds. I'm hoping it's a "Retail" version, not OEM or Volume. Perhaps there is a way to find this out, too.

So, I read online of software called RWEverything that can read from the desktop this info in BIOS. Anyone use this before or is there a better way? I guess if it's not a retail version it wouldn't matter as he would need to repurchase anyway.

:)

 

How to obtain Windows Product Key for downloaded Windows 10 following hardware modification

Which version of Windows did you upgrade from? That is the product key you should use to activate Windows 10.

How to install
and activate Windows 10 using your Windows 7 or Windows 8 product key

then

Activate Your Windows 10 License via Microsoft Chat Support

 

How to obtain Windows Product Key for downloaded Windows 10 following hardware modification

I have a Macbook Pro with Parallels 11 and Windows 10. I have just had to replace the motheboard of the Macbook, and now have to re-install/activate the Parallels and Windows 10. I have managed to do the Parallels because I still have the product key, but
have a problem with Windows 10. I have downloaded the software from the Microsoft site, but when I try to install it it asks for a product key which I do not have. When I upgraded earlier to Windows 10 I did not have a product key, I just had an entitlement
e-mail which I no longer have.

How can I activate my newly downloaded Windows 10, please?

 

Use ShowKeyPlus from our own @Superfly*Wink
ShowKeyPlus - Windows 10 Forums

 

Thanks Cliff S! Will do. *Smile

 

You're welcome*Thumbs

 

If it`s not Retail then you can`t reuse the key on any other PC, especially new hardware.

But if you upgraded to W10, then I think you can transfer that digital license to new hardware.

 

Here is the method provided by Microsoft:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/20530

 

Superfly's ShowKeyPlus - Windows 10 Forums worked great! Unfortunately, my brother's old PC was OEM. He paid MS the $119.99 + tax.

Off topic here - What was odd was how MS Activates Windows. We got the email receipt for the purchase but no product license key or how to download info (didn't need the download anyway). No instructions at all, so I tried MS chat online help which is slow at best. The tech asked if we were upgrading to Win 10 when I had already said it was a clean install, new PC! After maybe 20 minutes he told me to enter my brother's email into the product key line. When I did it partially filled in a Product Key-Like series of all caps which it rejected when I hit the enter key. I gave up the "chat" & called MS. When this tech told me to looked again at the Activation window again, Windows was activated! Odd how that works! Used ShowKeyPlus again & save the Product Key info.

Thanks for the help! *Smile

 

You're welcome.

On my PC I just got last fall, I just turned it on, let Windows install, and it was´automatically activated the OEM license.
Then I went to Activation in the Settings app, entered my Pro Key, and after a reboot it had switched to Pro(it only needs to turn on and unpack and install the "extras" that pro has) I do use my Microsoft account so it saves my digital license to my Microsoft account, making reinstalling faster.



It's basically the old "is this license genuine check" that older Windows version, like Win7 had.

Here is a link to Microsoft information page about Activation: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...-10-activation

 

I'm curious as to why you did not try the method that Microsoft has provided to transfer the license for free which was linked to in my previous post?

 

I appreciate your post but it was too late. By the time of your post we had already begun the install of Windows 10 Home & then into the Activation process. An hour ago today I revisited my post & read your post at that time.

 

Sorry we weren't in time to save you $120.

 

I do appreciate your advice but this was no fault of yours. If anything I should of posted earlier.

Everything my brother & I had read indicated OEM was out of luck for free hardware / new system ownership transfer. He had purchased his original Win 7 PC from MicroCenter & my suspicions were it was OEM. He took advantage of the Win 10 upgrade back in 2015 so I thought that one time upgrade would finish OEMs. When ShowKeyPlus indicated OEM he decided it wasn't a big deal as he would try replacing the suspected failing PSU & if this took care of the issue he'd use that PC for something else.

 

As an aside..

I have an issue at GitHub where a guy purchased licences through the Store expecting unique keys but got digital licences instead none the ware that it requires the Activation Wizard and MSA rather than the the old product key entry method as opposed to saving a product key for future use.

I'm not sure many understand the way digital licences work.. and MS in their inimitable way do not quite make this plain enough IMHO.