Windows 10: Find Product Key in Windows 10  

manav1984 said:

As i mentioned, I am upgrading my PC so my hardware will change-including motherboard.

You will have to install Windows 10 on the "new" computer, skip entering the product key. Sign in with your Microsoft Account login. Windows 10 will not be activated. Then you use the Activation Troubleshooter that @Brink linked to to move the digital license for Windows 10 from the "old" computer to the "new" computer.

Brink said:

As long as this is not an OEM license and is a retail license, you will be able to activate using the method I described.

Determine if Windows License Type is OEM, Retail, or Volume - Windows 10 Installation Upgrade Tutorials

Well I upgraded to windows 10 from windows 7. As far as I can remember it was OEM, but that doesnt matter anyways cause all versions upgraded from windows 7 to windows 10 are automatically OEM windows 10 right ?......atleast that is what i hear people saying.

manav1984 said:

Well I upgraded to windows 10 from windows 7. As far as I can remember it was OEM, but that doesnt matter anyways cause all versions upgraded from windows 7 to windows 10 are automatically OEM windows 10 right ?......atleast that is what i hear people saying.

They would be incorrect. There was initially some confusion about how a person could transfer the Windows 10 digital license, but assuming that Windows 10 "became OEM" was erroneous. Microsoft then responded to that and provided the method to transfer a digital license by linking it to a Microsoft Account and being able to transfer it that way. Previous to that (and still presently) you were still always able to transfer a Windows 10 license by just installing Windows 10 and entering a retail Windows 7/8/8.1/10 product key to activate it - until the Windows 7/8/8.1 retail product key was used too much and it got blocked from automatic online activation. If your Windows 7/8/8.1 retail product was blocked from automatic online activation due to using it too many times, then you would have to actually install Windows 7, 8 or 8.1, activate that with it's product key using phone activation, then upgrade that to Windows 10.

Keys are showing in my HP laptop's Windows 10 Home Single Language x64 upgraded to latest Creators Update.

Hello Everyone,

I hope everyone is having a great morning so far!

I bought a new HP PC Laptop that I have recently wiped and I forgot to get the product key info. I only got the information from the PC or System Info before I did the wipe and reinstallation. I have not connected my laptop to the internet yet and nothing has been reactivated etc. because I am trying to learn and do things correctly as this is a new animal for me dealing with laptops from a manufacturer like HP.

Now, should I do a factory reset of the laptop to it's original condition and retrieve this information or should I leave it alone? I noticed that the product ID and Device ID have changed, is this good or bad? Will this affect my activation?

Thank you for your help and assistance!

Brink said:

Hello Jeff,
Since this is a new OEM PC, its product key will be embedded in the UEFI firmware chip. This product key will automatically be detected and used by Windows Setup while installing Windows 10.
If you installed the same Windows 10 the key is for, then it should activate when you connect to the Internet.

Hey Shawn, great to see you again!

Thank you for this information. Can I retrieve this information or should I even bother? I am assuming this product key that is embedded is the original one right?

Just curious here, not sure in your activation tutorial, but I am looking at my system information via control panel and I am comparing the product ID located in the activation section to the one I documented that I remembered I took a picture of. Why do these change? Will it activate as the previous one or will it activate as the new one I see? I hope I am not repeating your answer.