Making sure I can reinstall Windows 10 from scratch - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Sredni
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2024, 02:33:22 am
content: Ok, so long story short, I bought a used (ex-leasing) Dell M6800 from a brick and mortar store and it has Windows 10 that is activated "using your organization's activation service".Here's the screenshot from Settings - Updates - Activation:I do not trust the seller (long history) so I would like to know:1) Can I verify this is a legit activation?2) Can I reinstall Windows 10 from scratch - ideally a new SSD - by using the product ID recovered from the registry (or any other piece of information available to me)?If I click on the information link on that Activation page, I am sent to an unhelpful page on microsoft's website that lists four types of activations (not the one shown above, at least not verbatim) and how to link a Microsoft account to the activation (something I would rather not do).I am a bit scared of invalidating a (hopefully) legit activation by only trying a fresh install on another SSD.What's your experience?EDIT:Backstory on the software:https://www.eevblog.com/forum/general-computing/why-cant-my-copy-of-win10-pro-be-activated/

author: IanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2024, 02:59:03 am
content: I cannot speak from experience, but I suspect the original license was a volume license belonging to the original organization that owned it the PC. Most likely you cannot reinstall and reactivate Windows unless you belong to that organization and have access to that private network and/or the IT services in that organization.What you could do instead is buy a separate retail Windows license and activate using that.

author: pickle9000
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2024, 05:51:28 am
content: This workshttps://www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder/or the manual wayhttps://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/how-to-recover-your-windows-product-key/8687ef5d-4d32-41fc-9310-158f8e5f02e3Keep in mind that UEFI can be a pain. If you have a Microsoft account logging in before you start can save the day if you are changing hardware.To verify,Get your key first using software aboveLog in to the computer using your MS account.Download an ISO of Windows and make an installer usb stick.Remove the old drive and do nothing to it, you can just put it back in, check your bios drive type and config.Put in new drive and boot off the usb stick.This is a hardware change so if prompted select hardware changeIt may ask you to log into your MS account and or for the key during the install. This can be done later on the system information screen.If it activates your good.Is it a valid key? Probably, Microsoft has batch keys being used all over to encourage people to get on the next version of windows. You can search for your key.

author: pickle9000
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2024, 06:01:59 am
content: In case I wasn't clear. Changing the hard drive to an ssd is a hardware change.If the key is a batch one you should be able to find it with a google search.Logging into a a Microsoft account transfers the key to you and allows windows to be reinstalled. if the hardware is not changed it will just work. Corporate or refurbish keys can be used without issue.

author: pickle9000
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2024, 06:26:16 am
content: Another key finder, oldie but a goodiehttps://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.htmlIf you have an old version of Windows then Win10 can often be installed.

author: Jeroen3
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2024, 07:37:16 am
content: Your license is a Volume License.It expires after 180 days without contact of the companies license server (probably on intranet), or when the company starts garbage collecting.Check if there is a Windows sticker under the battery for an OEM License.This means you will lose this license and have to buy a new one. There are websites around where you can get licenses for a few dollars, try them, they work. License from other world region or something. It may need phone activation. But if you get another volume license you have been duped.

author: RoGeorge
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2024, 07:56:43 am
content: Or, install Ubuntu or some other Linux. It's free and doesn't need any accounts or activations. Seems like the hardware of your laptop model is supported by Linux.

author: Veteran68
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2024, 02:29:40 pm
content: I'm not certain a MS account login will preserve a volume license that can no longer validate against its license server. Worth a try, if it doesn't work you're no worse off, but you should be prepared to buy another license. As was mentioned, there are numerous vendors selling OEM and "retail" keys at prices <$50 US. I've bought a few and can confirm they were not volume licenses, though I suspect they were most likely misused OEM licenses and are violating MS terms in some way that MS isn't terribly concerned about enforcing. They do activate as "retail" licenses though and I've never had to call in to activate them. I've done this with Windows 10 and Windows 11 licenses. Only once did I have an activation fail with an invalid key (likely reused) but contacted the vendor, was immediately sent another key, and it just worked.One tip I've used for years to help avoid the "changed hardware" issue is before re-activating Windows on the new drive, change it's volume serial number to match your old drive. You can see your old drive's serial number at the top of a 'dir' command output or with the 'vol' command in a command prompt:Code:C:\>volVolume in drive C is WindowsVolume Serial Number is 1E81-8803Then use a tool such asVolumeID from SysInternalsto set the same serial number on the new drive *before* activating. Heed the warnings on that page to boot clean (Safe Mode preferably), change the ID, and immediately reboot. Even better, run it from a bootable rescue media. Otherwise Windows and NTFS can get confused when the serial number of a mounted drive changes.The drive serial is one of the more highly-weighted inputs to the hardware hashing algorithm MS uses. The activation is designed to be tolerant of individual hardware upgrades over time, but too many things changing at once is considered a "new computer." Also different hardware is assigned different weights, some with more "points" than others. You're allowed only so many "points" of change at once before you're not allowed to re-activate the same key. As I recall, the drive ID and MAC address carries the most weight and changing them are more likely to cause activation to fail, so cloning them from the old hardware is a good way to reduce the chance that it trips the threshold requiring a new key. You might even get away with changing them back later, one at a time.Quote from: RoGeorge on January 08, 2024, 07:56:43 amAs much as I love and use Linux, not everyone has the luxury, if not desire, of running something other than Windows.

author: Ranayna
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2024, 09:07:22 pm
content: In my experience, these Keyfinders do not work properly anymore.While they will show a key, these keys are generic keys that can be used to install, but not to activate.And you don't need a key to install Windows 10/11 nowadays anyway, except for Enterprise or Education editions.Since you want to swap the drive anyway, i would swap the drives just install Windows on the new drive.On a Precision Workstation i would install Pro, very likely that is what it came with anyway. And if it did, and that Pro edition was activated, it might automatically activate, without a key.And if it does not activate: As long as you do not require personalisation (set window colors and screensaver), and can live with a small watermark on the desktop, you do not really *need* to activate Windows ever. The days of inactive Windows automatically shutting down or massively nagging are over.

author: nfmax
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2024, 09:20:20 pm
content: Now Window 10 is approaching end-of-life, and Microsoft are no longer selling product keys, the legit resellers are unloading their stocks of keys at 'reasonable' prices. Recently, I did a fresh Windows 10 Pro install, on an Intel Mac Mini using Apple Boot Camp. I was able to buy a key for £40 which worked with no trouble, so I can now log on locally without using my Microsoft account. Unless you are flat broke this is probably the path of least resistance.This Mac Mini was my old 'main' computer, now replaced with an Apple Silicon M2 Pro, but I do need to run some Windows-only software. Using Windows 10 Pro lets me run Remote Desktop from the new Apple mini, which Home doesn't.

author: Ian.M
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2024, 09:42:24 pm
content: A Dell M6800 would have shipped with one of:Windows® 8 Pro (64-Bit)Genuine Windows® 7 Ultimate (32-Bit or 64-Bit); Genuine Windows® 7 Professional (32-Bit or 64-Bit)Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® version 6.4Ubuntu® 12.04 SP1 LinuxAs Microsoft disabled Win10 free upgrade from Windows 7/8back in Septemberyou may have difficulty reinstalling Win 10 and auto-activating it using the BIOS OEM key.

author: jpanhalt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2024, 09:51:37 pm
content: Quote from: nfmax on January 08, 2024, 09:20:20 pmAre there any legitimate Internet sellers? I am interested. May the 32/64 bit version work with my Windows 7 32/64 bit software?

author: nfmax
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2024, 09:56:45 pm
content: Quote from: jpanhalt on January 08, 2024, 09:51:37 pmI usedhttps://www.msofficestore.uk/, but that probably doesn't help you much. I have no idea how legit they actually are, but for the sum in question, I thought it was worth a punt.

author: Sredni
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2024, 11:09:22 pm
content: Quote from: IanB on January 08, 2024, 02:59:03 amI apologize for not including this piece of information from the start.From the service tag I was able to ascertain that this system was shipped with Windows 7 pro. Then when I got it, it had Windows 10 not activated (and other problems, like the disk that was supposed to be new with 12thousand hours of usage).The seller swapped the old Hynix 512GB SSD with a Patriot burst 480GB (I guess he could not find a cheaper one) and put an activated copy of Windows 10 on it.So, this version of windows is not activated by the former company it was acquired from, but by this... peculiar seller with a special relationship with truth, so to speak.I bought a system with win10 so I expect to have a legit copy of windows 10.I already got the product key from the registry.QuoteIn this case the organization would be the seller. Which I can only hope did the right and legit thing, but... this was the keyboard he guaranteed was backlit:https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/what-did-you-buy-today-post-your-latest-purchaseIf you go on my youtube channel you will see that instead of a 240W adapted he gave me a 180W one, and then replaced it with a 210W one (a step at the time...), gave me a 2015 battery as new, then replaced with what looks like a 2014 battery with reprogrammed chip that dies at 60% discharge, told me he would replace the dead CMOS battery but did not...So, I do not trust him exactly as a brother, hence why I am asking for independent advice.

author: Veteran68
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2024, 11:10:17 pm
content: I've purchased cheap retail/OEM (not volume) Windows 10 and 11 keys through multiple vendors, including Kinguin and BitsDuJour (one of many StackCommerce storefronts that sell them). They activated just fine as retail keys, and my desktop Windows 11 Pro is still working 2 years later. I used the other keys for VMs that also still work. As I mentioned before, I had to get one key replaced when it looked like it had been used already, and that was pretty painless. Just sent them a screenshot of the activation failure and they sent another key that worked. These dealers have been in business for years and are well established, they're not some fly-by-night operation.I've also recently bought two Adobe Acrobat Pro 2023 keys (one for Windows, one for Mac) from SoftwareShore, who also sells Windows licenses which I've not tried. I'm not as familiar with Adobe's license key schemes, but these looked like they might have been volume licenses. In fact I think Adobe only offers perpetual licenses to Acrobat 2023 through volume licenses now, regular retail customers must subscribe to get anything newer than the 2020 version. So who knows for long they'll work, but for now they do. AFAICT from their domain registration, SoftwareShore has been around for about a year now, and they even accept Klarna as a payment option which would seem to grant them some degree of legitimacy. While they're almost certainly some unauthorized grey market software dealer, if they were outright ripping people off I doubt they'd still be in business under the same DBA. Most of those sites tend to advertise heavily, make a lot of sales, and disappear before popping up under a new DBA. But YMMV -- I'm not trying to vouch for them other than to say I took a chance and it went fine (so far).At the prices we're talking about, the risk is pretty low, but always take precautions. When I'm dealing with an unknown vendor where I don't have trusted references to vouch for them, I'll use a one-time CC number for the purchase. Either through Privacy.com or one of my CC providers that offer virtual numbers. I set the virtual limit to just over the purchase amount, and then to be doubly sure I close the virtual card immediately after the purchase. That way I don't have to worry about any fraudulent additional charges later.

author: Sredni
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2024, 11:20:15 pm
content: Quote from: RoGeorge on January 08, 2024, 07:56:43 amOh yes, I bought it for that.Initially I wanted to install my copy of Win7 but I have to admit I kind of like Win10, so since it is already paid for I wanted to keep that as well.Ideally I would like to triple boot: Win10, Win7, and Linux (Debian). But I am not sure the two windows would play nice together.Right now I want to make sure I do not have a pirated version of Windows 10.

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 09, 2024, 10:25:23 pm
content: Dual (or triple) booting is usually a terrible idea unless you really know what you're doing and you're prepared to fix boot issues every now and then. You might shut down your machine one day and the next day it's unusable.All it takes is an OS update to completely screw up your boot loader. Just be forewarned.

author: Sredni
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 10, 2024, 06:23:19 am
content: I have been multibooting since the days of Windows95 (back then I had won 3.11 or something like that in one of the partitions!).But I have always done that with old bioses and MBRs.I need to get up to speed with UEFI and GPT which, I gather, can be a pain to work with, but multiboot is a must for me.Actually I might even ditch UEFI and GPT to go back to legacy tech, since I don't think I will want to use drives bigger than 2 TB (if that was the limit).Thanks for the heads up, anyway.Suggestion for up to date instructions for modern multibooting?

author: IanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 10, 2024, 06:39:11 am
content: Quote from: Sredni on January 10, 2024, 06:23:19 amI think the modern way to do it is through virtualization. An introduction here:

author: rdl
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 11, 2024, 03:12:15 pm
content: Okay, I know nothing about Windows 10, but with Windows 7 there are almost zero negatives to using it un-activated. There is a "hack" to make it work as a normal activated install, but I stopped doing it years ago. I decided it was more trouble than it's worth.Another thing to consider is that Microsoft is not really in the business of selling operating systems anymore. I'm surprised it hasn't reached the point of them just handing out Windows for free.

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 11, 2024, 10:15:41 pm
content: Quote from: rdl on January 11, 2024, 03:12:15 pmThey are going the opposite way. They want you to pay for features on a subscription basis, for things that would ordinarily be available in a particular off-the-shelf edition. This is more noticeable in the corporate sector where employees are using Microsoft 365 accounts. If you don't have a certain subscription/licence level, certain features are locked out.And it's not cheap. E3 and E5 enterprise licences are about AUD$57 and $86 per user, per month respectively. OK sure, it includes other features like Microsoft Office etc... but still, it can get expensive very quickly. (That's on an annual commitment too, it's more expensive month-to-month.)Microsoft want a "Operating System as a Service" or "Computing as a Service" model and are increasingly putting features behind paywalls.If you want to see a side-by-side comparison, have a look at:https://m365maps.com/matrix.htm#000111111111111111111Scroll down to the "Windows" section.Of course this isn't applicable to home users who simply get Windows as part of their computer purchase (or buy a retail copy), but I can see it going this way in the future. It wasn't that long ago where you would buy a certain edition of Windows for your organisation and it was yours perpetually (which you can still do of course, but you miss out on a lot of those management and security features that businesses use).This is where I think Apple macOS have had the advantage for many years. One version of the OS does everything. No licensing as it comes with the machine. No need to tie it to any online accounts (unless you want to). It just works out of the box.

author: Sredni
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 12, 2024, 01:14:34 am
content: Well, this laptop is the gift that keeps on giving...I had a little chat session with Microsoft's Copilot AI and it suggested me how to get info on my license. UsingCode:slmgr /dlvIn an elevated CMD prompt.So, here's the (redacted) screenshot of my 'license':It appears to be a volume license, set to expire after 180 days - as hinted above - but... the strange thing is that it says I have 176 days left. But I received this laptop with this version of windows on the 23rd of December, so...Is this how a crack work?Can this guy be so brazen as to sell cracked copies of Windows on all his computers? I mean, this is a brick and mortar store, not some ethereal seller over the internet. Can a licence like this one be somehow legit?EDIT:Just checked, and the time is running... :'( . I have now less minutes available till expiration which means the obvious: the 180 days are days of effective usage of the OS. And on Microsoft's website it says that if I have that kind of license on a stand-alone system, then it's not genuine.I wonder what was this guy thinking...

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 12, 2024, 05:22:12 am
content: It's not necessarily cracked, but rather a Key Management Server which is often used in businesses. They re-authenticate back to the KMS every so often to check that the licence is still valid and if not, falls back into Unlicensed mode. This would be expected if it's a former corporate laptop.

author: Ranayna
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 12, 2024, 08:11:03 am
content: There are various cracks available as far as i know, and some are using KMS as far as i know.I am on a legitmately KMS activated Enterprise Windows, and that currently also has 177 days left. It will not constantly talk to KMS. So that alone is not an indicator.But it should also show the IP of the KMS server. Is that really empty, or did you redact that?Whatever though: You will very likely lose this KMS activated "license" if you re-install from an official Microsoft Media.

author: Jeroen3
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 12, 2024, 10:56:04 am
content: Yesterday I got my new Framework laptop, without OS of course.And I installed Windows 10 myself without key.Then I bought a license key from random key seller website for €5.It worked fine.Actually I bought two, one for a friend who just built a new gaming pc. Both worked.

author: Sredni
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 12, 2024, 03:09:19 pm
content: Quote from: Ranayna on January 12, 2024, 08:11:03 amI redacted all numbers 😁The IP is there and it's 42.193.158.137A fast search found the same KMS IP in a question on MS forum (in Japanese or Chinese) and the follow up answer was that the license is valid for 180 days only and that the user should buy a retail copy.of windows.I understand companies can do that and periodically renew the license, but this is now my personal computer, so I am dubious this is a legit activation method. But before making accusations I would like to be sure.EDITOh, I also found this IP in the report of a supposedly malicious software onhttps://any.runIt is associated to the domain win.kms.pub (is this MS? 🤔) and the software analysed was "Online_KMS_Activation.zip" for windows 7.Verdict: " Malicious activity".

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 12, 2024, 10:56:26 pm
content: Quote from: Sredni on January 12, 2024, 03:09:19 pmThat domain isn't associated with Microsoft at all. Looks like it was registered through a Chinese hosting company.I wouldn't trust that at all. In fact, if I bought a second-hand laptop, I wouldn't trust anything on that hard disk to be secure or authentic.My recommendation is to format the machine, reinstall Windows from scratch using the official ISO on Microsoft's website. Sure, this means you'll need to source your own, legitimate key, but so be it.

author: rdl
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 13, 2024, 06:10:19 pm
content: I would go even farther and replace the entire drive. Get the Windows 10 installer from Microsoft that works from a USB drive and go from there.

author: coromonadalix
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 13, 2024, 06:56:55 pm
content: @opyes it is tied to a buiseness / organisation account, outside this company or have bhought used stuff from them, you can not use this serial numberand if this company do its job correctly the licence will be revokedas for the other threads, yes you have kms activations, and some foreign kms servers, and some DLL injection too, meaning you have an internal kms server installed, even if your pc doesn't go on the web for a very long timemostly used for Office activationsand finally yes you have some cough "free tools" to get a digital licence activation, this is the one you need, even reformatting the drive, new win 10-11 installation without any sn, it wll re-activate itself once you go on the weball my machines have them, upgraded etc ... never had problemsand for the ultra cheap serials you can buy, they are mostly oem, volume ... some licences goes to a tons of pc's before being locked out of available quantitysome friend have bought them, never had problems for Win10 w11 and Office 2021, i was just lazyno need to toss drive for a new one, you have killdisk and other formating tools who will clean up the drive partitions ....or for this famous pc, you have to create a new admin, log into it, delete the old accounts old files etc .... it is not perfect,you still have the windows RESET function, it will flush anything, but maybe not perfect toouse poweshell command to flush the serial number and you can even use this gracious web to find activation serials loll you can even change your windows version SKU lollim running on win11 pro for workstation ... thks Microsoft

author: Veteran68
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 13, 2024, 11:33:57 pm
content: Quote from: coromonadalix on January 13, 2024, 06:56:55 pmWhile many of the shadier sites sell volume keys, you can still find cheap RETAIL channel keys. I've bought several. The one on the left is actually a Win10 Pro VM activated with a Win11 Pro key (yes you can do that) bought just last week from Groupon for $16. The one on the right is from my main Win11 Pro workstation activated with a key from Kinguin bought a couple years ago for $20-something. Now they might be OEM, and they might be fake generated keys, but they work. And the one on the right has survived a couple of hardware upgrades that required me to re-activate.

author: rdl
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 14, 2024, 06:29:36 pm
content: Just in case anyone is interested, I did a little checking and apparently the only restrictions on using Windows 10 unregistered/unlicensed are that some cosmetic changes are locked out. I didn't did much deeper. Personally I think I would find that more of an issue than the "limited time" demo mode of Windows 7.

author: Gyro
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 14, 2024, 07:20:22 pm
content: Quote from: coromonadalix on January 13, 2024, 06:56:55 pmOut of curiosity, I installed a Win7 VM under Virtualbox (Linux) and ran the kms hack tool. I then ran Malwarebytes and it picked up 26 'threats'. Now how many are actually malicious or whether Malwarebytes is tuned to pick up such item by default, I don't know, but it gives an idea of the spread of registry keys, DLLs and other files it leaves on the system.Log attached...

author: coromonadalix
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 14, 2024, 07:32:21 pm
content: yes they are all related to the kms activation, dll, scheduled tasks etc ...for kms it is the last thing i would do, some kms tools have been contaminated, other sources are safe if you know where to get them .. Rat ...for an unregistered win10 youll have some surprises, because some locked things are changing and nag you a lotas i told before, you have tons of floating serial on the web, depends on witch you take for activation ..oh good some retails are being sold loll lucky, i did not get that chance, lollif some retail are duplicated MS servers will lock them out

author: Sredni
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 16, 2024, 05:04:54 pm
content: Quote from: IanB on January 10, 2024, 06:39:11 amVirtualization can be very useful, and in fact I intend to use it to install a copy of Windows XP. But for alternative OSes I intend to use on a regular basis it will defeat the purpose of having a foldback installation that would still work when one system 'dies'. I have used Linux more than once to fix problems in my windows installations.

author: Sredni
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 16, 2024, 05:20:31 pm
content: Quote from: Halcyon on January 12, 2024, 05:22:12 amThank you for your answers. But I am a bit suspicious of the fact that this is a chinese server and, mostly, from the fact that I am not part of any organization. I bought a used laptop from a reseller and I expected a stand-alone license since my computer is not tied to any network of this shop, nor I want it to be.I understand that there are many shades of gray in licensing and some solutions that might look shady at first can be perfectly legit, but the history I have with this seller and his 'alternative truths', plus the fact that on Microsoft's site it states that KMS activations are non-genuine on stand-alone computers, and the fact that the server is in China... Well...I will contact a local consumer association to get a legal opinion and, if need be, the local authorities that deal with this sort of problems.On a side note, when I was hit by the infamous Windows 10 update of January 10 (or something) that asked user to enlarge the recovery partition to 750GB, I ran the toolCode:DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealthand I got this responseCode:The restore operation completed successfully.The operation completed successfully.Then I ranCode:sfc /scannowwhich gave this response:Code:Beginning system scan. This process will take some time.Beginning verification phase of system scan.Verification 100% complete.Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them.For online repairs, details are included in the CBS log file located atwindir\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For example C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For offlinerepairs, details are included in the log file provided by the /OFFLOGFILE flag.This might be totally unrelated to the activation files, but I wonder what is the source of corruption. The log file is too big to post here, and it's kind of cryptic to my eyes. I wonder if that command would find files 'fixed' by certain 'activation tools'.

author: Jeroen3
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 16, 2024, 08:54:06 pm
content: At this point there will be nothing you can do to return your trust in this install of windows.Wipe the disk and reinstall windows with a key from royalcdkeys/kinguin or something.Make sure you create the install media on a different pc!Or, if you now do not trust the entire pc, that's up to you.

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 16, 2024, 10:23:12 pm
content: Quote from: Sredni on January 16, 2024, 05:20:31 pmThis alone would cause enough doubt in my mind to blow the entire hard disk away and start over.

author: Sredni
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 16, 2024, 11:21:04 pm
content: Yes, the disk will be formatted no doubts about it, but before doing that I have to settle the matter from the legal point of view.I am a bit concerned about my old laptop because I moved text files and PNG pictures from this one to that using a USB stick. Immediately after that I have suspended my backup to the desktop and external hard disks to avoid further spread of potential infections but now I have to make sure I have not bad bugs on my Vostro.The amount of time I had to waste on this laptop is astounding.After buying it I found a few reviews of this store and boy, they did not mince words... One reviewer wrote that it's better to buy a laptop from strangers in hoodies in a dark alley than to buy from this store. 😁

author: TERRA Operative
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 17, 2024, 05:33:11 am
content: My advice.Complete format of HDD, I suggest a gparted boot CD/USB so you can nuke the partition and completely reformat with no interference from anything hiding away, and without potentially compromising another PC.Make a Win10 install USB stick from a trusted machine from the Microsoft website.Install Win10 on your laptop and activate, WITH YOUR PC COMPLETELY OFFLINE!! So you can bypass the need for linking to a Microsoft account.With any luck, once you reboot and connect to the internet, there might be an original licence key for the laptop in Microsoft servers that gets found and you are golden. (Microsoft stores the licence key for easier activation, so you don't have to search for the sticker or original documentation).If not, buy a key applicable to your PC.Note, if you have a Xeon CPU, you will REQUIRE Windows 10 for Workstations. This is not needed for a standard i3/i5/i7 Intel CPU.

author: Ranayna
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 17, 2024, 07:49:58 am
content: Quote from: TERRA Operative on January 17, 2024, 05:33:11 amUhm, got a source for that?There is be nothing inherent in a Xeon CPU that requires Windows for Workstations. Workstation is required for more that two *sockets*, but that certainly does not apply to the device of the OP.

author: TERRA Operative
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 17, 2024, 08:41:50 am
content: My Dell Precision laptop with Xeon CPU, that required Windows for Workstations to be installed.Just my experience with a datapoint of one.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_10_editions

author: Ranayna
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 17, 2024, 09:21:00 am
content: Workstation supports Xeons, but is not required for them.https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/design/minimum/supported/windows-10-22h2-supported-intel-processorsThis list likely is not exhaustive and does not contain all compatible CPUs, but it contains Xeons without any mention of Workstation Edition.Workstation is only required if you have more than 2 CPU sockets, or if you need any of the other specific features of Workstation.On a single socket system like virtually any notebook, even Windows 10 Home Edition should work for a Xeon, though i do not have personal experience with those.

author: Jeroen3
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 17, 2024, 09:52:40 am
content: It looks like Pro does not include the drivers necessary for all of the Xeon family.License wise there is a socket limit.

author: TERRA Operative
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 17, 2024, 10:15:04 am
content: Maybe it was the Xeon installed in my system, or marketing upsell, I dunno.All I know is that I had to have Workstation installed at time of purchase if I opted for the Xeon CPU

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 17, 2024, 11:40:03 am
content: All editions of Windows 10 will work fine with a Xeon processor (even "Home", although I'm not sure why you'd want to). It hasn't changed since earlier versions of Windows.https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/design/minimum/windows-processor-requirements

author: macboy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 17, 2024, 07:59:59 pm
content: FWIW, I use Win 10 Pro on a 2-socket Xeon system (dual E5-2667v2). It old, but still so fast that I can't rationalize an upgrade.