Windows 10: New laptop with Win10 pre-installed won't activate

Hi there. I'm hopeful you can help me with my problem.

I recently purchased a new MSI laptop with Windows 10 Home Edition already installed. I asked the authorized re-seller to perform a clean Windows installation so as not to have to deal with bloatware.

When my laptop arrived, I skipped the activation step when I first booted it up - I didn't have a disk or email receipt with the product key, after all, and from what I understand, with Windows 10 manufacturers no longer put a sticker on the device with the product key. Then I started getting nag messages telling me Windows wasn't activated. When I went to Settings, it said that my product key is already in use by another PC. Any attempts to "change product key" result in freezing the Settings window, and I have to go to the Task Manager to end the task.

I have been working with both MSI and the re-seller to try to figure out how to fix this, but it's taking some time and I'm getting impatient... and therefore, I have been researching on my own as well. *Smile But it would seem that the re-seller messed up the clean installation, possibly by using an incorrect version of Windows, such as Professional.

My laptop did not arrive with a Windows disk. I have 2 drives - a small SSD on which Windows is installed, and a large secondary hard drive. Disk management is showing a recovery partition on both drives, but they have 100% free space.

So, I have many questions, but these are my 2 big ones:
1. Can I use the OEM key to get Windows to activate? I found a utility to show the key, and instructions on Microsoft's website to activate Windows with a different product key using command prompts.
2. Or would it be better to reset the PC? Will that pickup with original product key, instead of the one the re-seller used? I'm concerned that I'll be prompted to put my Windows disk or recovery disk in, of which I have neither.

I'm not so impatient that I'm going to make any changes on my own without authorization from MSI and the re-seller. But I would appreciate your input. Thanks!

:)

 

Keeping Windows license when changing hard drive

Hello.

I have two laptops, the old one came with pre-installed Win7 and I upgraded to Win10, and the new one had Win10 pre-installed. The hard drive on my old laptop is failing and I need to replace it, and I was wondering if and how it is possible to keep the
Windows license?

In the Activation tab in Settings, both laptops say "Windows is activated with a digital license linked to your Microsoft account", I hope they don't interfere with each other as it's the same account.

Can I recover the license when I log in to my account from a freshly installed Win10? And if I do, can I then change the Microsoft account linked to that computer?

 

transfering Windows 10 digital license to new laptop.

If your original Windows 7 was a retail licence then you can de-activate Windows 10 on your old laptop and activate Windows 10 on your new laptop.

If it was an OEM licence (came with the laptop pre-installed) then you cannot transfer it to the new laptop and will have to purchase a licence . . .

Will your new laptop not have Windows 10 pre-installed, most do nowadays and will activate automatically . . .

 

please run this program > https://www.tenforums.com/software-ap...7-showkey.html

Need you to post a pic of Key info window - But before posting pic - click each product key to hide them then capture pic and post

Example
Attachment 44386

 

That's the utility I found! Here you go...

 

If the re-seller hadn't activated the original install of Windows before installing Win 10 you'll likely have to rollback to the original, activate it, perform an upgrade to 10 and do a clean install from there.

 

From an elevated command prompt ("run as administrator" command prompt) type:

SLMGR /UPK

then type

SLMGR /IPK xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx using the original OEM key provided by showkey.

Then type SLMGR /ATO

 

Strange thing is, the reseller installed a Win 10 System Builder key for the same edition that the OEM installed. Windows 10 Home should have activated automatically when they reinstalled...

Try Navy's suggestion. If the problem persists, we will have to get a WDT diagnostic report to determine the cause.

 

Superfly, it's interesting you mentioned the re-seller used the same edition. When I contacted the re-seller, he indicated that I could skip the activation step during boot, and it would automatically detect the key from the BIOS and activate on its own. But when the issue didn't resolve and I started getting the nag message on my screen, something else was clearly up.

I appreciate the advice, and I will try the command prompt using the OEM key. I am hoping it won't be anything more complicated than that. But with my weird work schedule I probably won't be able to do much of anything until Monday evening or Tuesday morning, and I'll probably also have heard back from MSI and the re-seller by then.

I'll post an update to let you know how it all works out, and if I need more help! *Smile

Edit - had some time tonight - and it worked! Thank you again.

 

Thank you to the person that posted this problem and a bigger thank you for this response. i also purchased my laptop from a re-seller who had no idea what to do after he had restored the machine and sold it to me. i also didn't have a product key. I used ShowKeyPlus and I was able to use the OEM Key to activate my Windows. Thank you so much*Biggrin

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https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/3...dows-10-a.html

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/7...dows-10-a.html


From an elevated command prompt ("run as administrator" command prompt) type:

SLMGR /UPK

then type

SLMGR /IPK xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx using the original OEM key provided by showkey.

Then type SLMGR /ATO

 

A first post of thanx is what makes developing so worthwhile...

BTW... Bigup to @NavyLCDR - seems we have a new recruit - @NoelDP (Windows 7), me (Windows 8) now John as the activation go-to guys...