Windows 10: I have a windows 10 USB, but I lost the box and windows didn't activate automatically

Normally whenever I've needed to reinstall it sort of 'just worked' and activated by itself and everything was good. I did a reinstall recently for the first time in over a year and this time windows update just flat out refused to work, I ended up needing to download and use the update assistant. The usb is from 2015 so it kinda makes sense... Lots of updates.


Now I have this annoying 'activate windows' watermark though...


I used to have a little plastic card in the box that came with the usb and had a code on it, what I'm wondering is if the code is also on the usb since I didn't always need the card? If so can I access somehow to activate?

:)

 

Windows 10 USB boot

Hi there, am not a windows 10 expert. I have a pc in the bedroom on windows 10, I messed up the bootloader trying to fix the xp on that system.

System wont boot, trying to repair via win 10 usb installer.

Downloaded the media creation tool to install windows 10 installer on usb stick. Not compatible with a host of usb sticks I have. Tried the usb sticks that others use, but I think they use rufus; as the media creation tool by win 10 does not detect the usb stick.

So quick question, the win10 machine i am trying to repair the bootloader is a win7 upgraded to win10.
If i were to use the usb win10 installer to "repair installation" does the version of the iso downloaded via the media creation tool matter?

There is three options:
Windows 10
Windows 10 Home
Windows 10 N

Also is there a step by step instead of using rufus as I want to try an alternative method of creating a usb win 10 installer. Preferably with more compatibility.

System is a asus sabertooth 990 (r2?) with AMD phenom X 6.

Also is there any other software I can load onto the usb that can repair the bootloader easily?
That would be the ideal alternative. Thanks

 

Windows 10 Activation (Insider)

I did a full clean install of Windows 10 a while back and it will not activate. I didn't do a clean install from Windows 7/8/8.1 it was from Windows 10 (activated) so I expected it to activate just fine since it was fine before hand.

My Windows 10 license wasn't created from a previous Windows 7/8/8.1 key I got it from signing up to be an insider back in Nov of 2014. I installed a preview build on my laptop from the insider program and it worked just fine and it automatically upgraded to newer and newer preview builds and then to the full release automatically, fully activated and working fine. I did a full clean install not long ago (expect it to go through without issue since it was working before) and now it will not activate and I can't find any info on how to get it to activate and I can't seem to find the insider Windows 10 key.

Microsoft online support was useless and the gave me the toll free number to tech support.. I am currently on the phone waiting, they said it could be a 1hr 30min wait.. sigh.. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

Installing windows off of a USB stick

Step By Step from vista:
From admin cmd prompt

1. diskpart
1a. list disk
2. select disk 1 (replace 1 with your usb drive)
3. clean
4. create partition primary
5. select partition 1 (replace 1 with your usb drive)
6. active
7. format fs=fat32
8. assign
9. exit

Copy Windows Vista's DVD ROM content to the Flash Drive

xcopy d:\*.* /s/e/f e:\ (d being your vista cd and e being your usb stick)

And that's it, boot off your usb disk