Windows 10: Windows 10 install - key never asked for.

You either had Windows 10 on that PC or you did the move the genuine ticket trick or you are on a network with a kms server if the edition was pro. There is no other explanation as to why it activated.

 

There's something funky about that key:









Showkey doesn't recognise it either...

 

Dear Mr. Fly
I'm not saying this is the key *Wink
But how did you get that or see under the Xs?

I just did a slmgr / xpr on an enterprise machine, and it shows an expiration of 02/04/2016 07:58:19 . and the key is very different. I'm not going to post any of it here!

Are you proposing that my machines aren't actually activated and slmgr /xpr is giving incorrect information?
here is the screenshot





dlv output obfuscated






I've spent 1.5 hours of my life talking to Microsoft support in India, and North America (when Microsoft UK is 10 mins walk from me), and then UK they say "If it's permanently activated", then "It's activated".. don't worry.. So I won't.

Answer [SOLVED sort of]

The script sent me by Microsoft all those months ago is incorrect!
They said use VAMT
Volume Activation Management Tool (VAMT) Technical Reference (Windows)

I'm going back to my linux day job.

 

Nope, apologies if I'm assuming that the key was a well publicized one...

The expiration date on Enterprise is due to KMS activation.

Note too that even Previews show as permanently activated when running /xpr, but that's beside the point - Insiders get activated based on HwID irrespective of key.

 

mrg9999, it isn't supposed to be possible for people to do clean installs of Windows 10 on computers that have never had Windows 10 before, and do not have Windows 10 Product Keys to have activated Windows 10. That's the only reason we are raising our eyebrows. We are trying to figure out what the undisclosed little secret there is that made this happen.

But if you say you just took two ordinary computers and did clean installs on them with official unmodified ISOs and they activated automatically....well, ok. It's kind of like the virgin birth of Windows 10.

 

It's 4 computers (2 x FJ, 2 x Dell ) and 2 VMs.

The ISO is what the tool produced from the media creation tool on oem.microsoft.com. I did have some problem getting the single X64 to work, but the 32 and combined 32&64 worked fine.

I'll generate sha256sum and md5 hashs and post them here. I don't remember the tool giving me the option, and if you do likewise, we can see if they are the same.

My end goal is
write a guide for someone to download an ISO, build and activate X number of standalone Windows 10 pro workstations, and then install an AV and VPN, Citrix package, that may be joined to a domain at a later point, so that they can receive a GPO.

 

It is simple. If you're on Windows 7/8/8.1 and have got OEM activation and if you run the Windows 10 setup on that machine, the machine checks your system and CONVERTS your previous OS OEM license to an OEM license for W10, that's why you get genuinely activated after the installation and it won't even ask for the key during the setup.

Yesterday, I installed Windows 10 Pro on my Windows 7 Ultimate machine and it was already activated after the installation.





Apparently, we both have the same OEM key.

 

Yes, that is what I thought. In OEM computers (not custom-built) the Windows key is stored in the BIOS or firmware. So Windows 10 detected that and qualified the upgrade. That's why it activated automatically without any issue. In a custom-built PC you would have to reinstall previous Windows version, activate it and upgrade to 10.

I think an alternative is to clean install and then activate by phone. After telling some details to Microsoft representative about your previous Windows license and hardware, and based on the numbers on screen, he can determine if you have a genuine previous Windows version and give you the activation codes. He will probably ask for the previous key to examine it or the previous Windows product code (found on the label).

 

Only on the OP's computers. Windows 10 has not detected Windows 8 keys in BIOS and qualified the upgrade for anyone else because Microsoft never wrote that capability into Windows 10. And that is why Microsoft has stated on several of their websites that an upgrade must be performed from an activated Windows 7/8/8.1 first before a clean install is done.

But if the OP thinks they had the "Windows 10 virgin birth", more power to him. Everyone else doing a clean install first has come back with "well, dang, why didn't that work?" Answer: because Microsoft didn't write it that way and told you to do an in place upgrade first.

 

You forget that an OEM PC doesn't need activation. The license is pre-activated by the manufacturer. When Windows is first online it simply confirms that it is installed on the intended hardware and you see it is activated in System Properties. In a retail Windows version when first online it activates automatically only when the technician has left the relevant checkbox ticked. If he didn't, the user has to click on Activate now to proceed.

 

And that has nothing to do with the ability of Windows 10 to use Windows 8 Product Keys stored in bios or manually entered as a means to activate an upgrade. Windows 10 uses the license information of the previous operating system stored on the hard drive retrieved via the getosstate.exe program and resulting genuineticket.xml file as the means to activate an upgrade - not the actual previous OS product key itself.

Take a computer with Windows 8 or 8.1 OEM installed and activated by the factory, with the product key stored in bios that has never had Windows 10 installed on it. Put in a standard, unmodified Windows 10 USB or DVD created with the Microsoft Media Creation Tool, boot the computer from it, erase all the partitions on the hard drive, clean install Windows 10 to the empty hard drive. First, Windows 10 setup will ask you for a product key. Second, skip entering the product key or attempt to enter a Windows 8/8.1 product key and Windows 10 will not activate. Microsoft never wrote into Windows 10 the ability to use a Windows 7, 8 or 8.1 product key to activate as an upgrade.

 

It never makes use of previous OS key, but only checks for OEM activation, and if it finds it, it produces its own OEM license for Windows 10 and activates the OS with it.

 

Yep, that is correct. And the OEM activation is not stored in BIOS or on the motherboard anywhere - it's within the file structure of the installed OS.

 

Maybe I wasn't clear. During setup Windows 10 examines the BIOS and firmware for OEM previous Windows keys. If it finds them, then it determines if Windows 10 Home or Windows 10 Pro is the correct version for free upgrade and issues the appropriate license. At this point, I guess, the installation continues without giving the user the choice of version and without asking for a product key. After installation, when first online it activates automatically and that's it. If it isn't an OEM computer or Windows setup cannot find license information on BIOS/firmware it asks for the product key. At this point the user may skip it and select Home or Pro, but he will not be able to legally activate windows if he choses the wrong version. When first online, Windows will try to activate. If there is no key, it will prompt user to give one. At this point he cannot because he hasn't any, so he may be given the option to activate by phone. All of these are just guessing, I haven't actually done it, so I cannot tell. This was the case with earlier Windows versions.

 

No you were clear - just mistaken.

That's not the way, at all, that Windows 10 does it. And this is one reason why so many people have tried to do an upgrade by starting with a clean install and thinking they can use a Windows 7/8/8.1 product key to activate Windows 10 with to end up in bitter disappointment when they find that they can't.