Windows 10: Will resetting Windows using a recovery media affect my OEM Windows license?

I encountered the error 'Could not find the recovery environment' while trying to reset Windows on my PC. The error message states: 'Insert your Windows installation or recovery media, and restart your PC with the media.' I understand how to fix this issue by resetting from recovery media, but I have an OEM Windows license. If I proceed with the reset using the recovery media, will my OEM Windows license remain intact, or do I need to take additional steps to ensure it is preserved? Thank you in advance for your guidance!

:)

 

Question On OEM Windows clean install......

"Flavors" of Windows licenses

Windows can be a little "odd" about license keys. There are at least 4 categories:

• Retail
• OEM
• Volume (electronic download)
• Corporate (no key needed)

For guaranteed success, the license key and media should be in the same category. If you have retail media, you may not be able to install it using an OEM or Volume license key, even though the key is valid for that version of Windows. *Wtf :wtf: Apparently, this is part of Microsoft's anti-piracy scheme (i.e., all customers are guilty until proven innocent).

 

Question On OEM Windows clean install......

Yea, I got that part, was just wondering if the OEM disk/key part was broken down into further catergories, like vendor specific - DELL, HP, etc. ?

What about service packs? I have a retail XP SP1 disk. I recall seeing a way to make a new disk with all the latest SP's. Sorry, rambling off topic here...

 

Download Windows 10 TH/RS

For the convenience of not having to use the installation media for startup repairs. But you should be able to use your installation media to do whatever the recovery partition does(including startup repairs). AFAIK. I could be wrong about that though.

I'm not sure if I follow you there. But if you clean install Windows 10 there will be at least 3 partitions.

• (EFI System Partition)
• (Primary Partition)
• (Recovery/OEM Partition)

If you install from an OEM installation media there might(should?) be 4 partitions. Since there might(should?) be a Recovery partition and an OEM partition.




Back on topic...

Download May 8 CU KB4103721 x64 (326.5MB)

Brings system to 17134.48

List of improvements and fixes found here.