Windows 10: I am planning to format and reinstall Windows 10 on my laptop and I have a couple of questions.

Hello!

I wanted to proceed with a fresh install of Windows 10 after having multiple issues with the current state of my laptop. The laptop came with a pre-installed copy of Windows 10 Home Single Language. It says that I have a digital license for the same. Anyways, I created a recovery USB drive using the Recovery Drive app on my laptop. I have formatted multiple laptops and PCs before, but I always had a physical key on me. Since this is a digital license, I want to know what to do when they ask me to enter the product key. I asked a friend on how to find out my key, and he suggested a script. After running the script, I found out the product key, but I am not sure if it's the right thing. On some other online forums, I read that if my computer came with pre-installed Windows, my computer will automatically recognize the digital key. I am not sure how that works. And if it helps, I have registered with Microsoft and Windows tells my key is linked to that email address. All this is sort of confusing.

Basically, I want to know if I can just format the system using the recovery drive USB and will Windows automatically recognize my digital key? If not, what do I do?

:)

 

A Couple of Brief Questions: Search Engines / Unplugged Laptop


Hey RamondWindoz,
1. I don't really have any suggestions, but hopefully others will add their thoughts on the subject... You can minimize tracking, cookies, etc by adjusting browser settings and 3rd party apps ... but basically if you're gonna be on the net, you're gonna be tracked to some extent *Sad
2. Check this tutorial - Change Power Plan Settings in Windows 10
Note: Option 1 at step 7 - Adjust Plan Brightness

 

Windows 10 formatting ?

But he already went to 10, so it's already tied to his hardware no?

To that end, he would only need to create the install media from the MS website, format upon installation and activate. There shouldn't be a need to to 10 since he is currently there and activated. See post 3...


Or.. did I miss something? If he's on 7, can you still get 10 free if you didn't activate it before that expired?

Edit: You have to use the assisted technology to get it free now... a bit shady to me if you aren't using that tech. That way you'd have to upgrade to 10.. then format and reinstall for a clean install.

 

[Solved] Windows 10 keeps reinstalling KB3119142

I noticed quite some time ago that KB3119142 (Update for Microsoft Visual C++ 2012 Update 4 Redistributable Package) kept reinstalling itself for some reason. At least once daily. Sometimes up to several times a day. I just ignored it. It didn't seem to be doing any harm. And I figured they'd eventually fix it. Well...days turned into weeks, weeks into months, with no end to the problem in sight. It dragged on unsolved for at least the last few months. Literally reinstalling itself hundreds of(at least a hundred, felt like more) times in that period of time.

So I finally googled it a couple days ago. And just got around to fixing it today. Which appears to have worked. And it couldn't have been easier to do. I feel so stupid to have let it intimidate me for so long.*Oops!

Below are links to the thread that I got the fix idea from, and the official MS support info page for KB3119142(from which I quoted the above).
http://www.tenforums.com/windows-up...-windows-10-keeps-reinstalling-kb3119142.html
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3119142