SIGforum.com Main Page The Lounge I want to Reinstall Windows 10 fresh. Says I have a digital license
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Thanks to this Corona crap the kids are out of school. Have to set up a way for them to Zoom. I am the jerk of a dad and these kids will not have phones, tablets, mobile access to the internet. So I bought a used desktop from the local laptop exchange place for $100. Figured it would be wiped and fresh. Well it is not so I am wanting to wipe it completely and reinstall windows 10. When I search for the Product Key it says that this machine is on a digital license. Is it possible for a fresh Windows install without buying a product Key? ———————————————— The world's not perfect, but it's not that bad. If we got each other, and that's all we have. I will be your brother, and I'll hold your hand. You should know I'll be there for you! | ||
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Member |
"Digital license" in Windows 10 speak means that your license is tied to your motherboard serial number or hard drive serial number or something. It's supposed to automatically reactivate without your having to enter anything when you reinstall. | |||
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| Raised Hands Surround Us Three Nails To Protect Us |
So just download windows 10 to a flash drive and reinstall? ———————————————— The world's not perfect, but it's not that bad. If we got each other, and that's all we have. I will be your brother, and I'll hold your hand. You should know I'll be there for you! | |||
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| Member |
As long as your computer is also connected to a Microsoft account, that should be all you need to do. https://support.microsoft.com/.../windows-10-activate | |||
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| Raised Hands Surround Us Three Nails To Protect Us |
Thanks much. Linked it to my account and am making the flash drive now. Hopefully all goes well. With my luck likely not. ———————————————— The world's not perfect, but it's not that bad. If we got each other, and that's all we have. I will be your brother, and I'll hold your hand. You should know I'll be there for you! | |||
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eh-TEE-oh-clez |
WAIT! Find your product key off of your machine before you do. (Google for instructions) If you have issue with the digital entitlement, you'll need the product key to fix it with customer support. Real life experience, yo. | |||
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| Raised Hands Surround Us Three Nails To Protect Us |
I downloaded ProduKey and it shows that my product key for Windows 10 and Internet Explorer is the same. Is that normal? ———————————————— The world's not perfect, but it's not that bad. If we got each other, and that's all we have. I will be your brother, and I'll hold your hand. You should know I'll be there for you! | |||
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| Member |
I was under the impression digital licenses didn't have associated product keys. I guess I was mistaken. | |||
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| Raised Hands Surround Us Three Nails To Protect Us |
I hate computers. Why does everything have to be so difficult. I try to install Windows and it says Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk has an MBR partition table. On EFI systems, Windows can only be installed to GPT disks. What the heck does that mean. ———————————————— The world's not perfect, but it's not that bad. If we got each other, and that's all we have. I will be your brother, and I'll hold your hand. You should know I'll be there for you! | |||
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Member |
I reinstalled WIndows on grandson's gaming computer a week ago. I got the iso file from Microsoft (no CD drive or USB port). It went smooth. https://www.minitool.com/backu...s-10-without-cd.html | |||
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Optimistic Cynic |
It means you'll have to low-level repartition/reformat the disk before you can proceed. This is automatic/easy with a Linux, Mac, or BSD install, I don't know about Windows. Might be easiest to replace the disk with a new one, this would be recognized and, presumably, the installer would "do the right thing™" It is certainly possible to prepare the disk with a real OS (e.g. a "live Linux boot image" -- a thumb drive with a Linux installer on it) then restart the Windows install. | |||
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| Member |
What was the original operating system on the used desktop? If it was Windows 7 or 8, it should have a Certificate of Authenticity sticker on it someplace. There should be a serial number on that sticker to do a fresh install. If the the computer previously had Windows 10 installed on it, then as maladat pointed out you should be fine doing a clean install from a USB Drive. I find the following site to be an excellent source for reinstalling Windows 10 even if the machine in question is not a Dell. https://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/ Specifically, I think this is what you want: https://dellwindowsreinstallat...-1909-clean-install/ | |||
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| Raised Hands Surround Us Three Nails To Protect Us |
Some British dude on YouTube walked me through how to convert it in the command prompt. Seemed to work well. Windows says it is installing now ———————————————— The world's not perfect, but it's not that bad. If we got each other, and that's all we have. I will be your brother, and I'll hold your hand. You should know I'll be there for you! | |||
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| eh-TEE-oh-clez |
No, you are right--for the most part. I've reinstalled a boatload of times without the product key and just the Digital Entitlement. But, last year, I was doing an install after upgrading motherboard and CPU. Digital Entitlement is tied to the old hardware, so I had to call into customer support to get it resolved. Had to whip out the product key from my Windows 8 install that was the basis for the Windows 10 upgrade. | |||
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| Raised Hands Surround Us Three Nails To Protect Us |
Everything is up and running. I used that program to pull the key and it worked fine installing after I figured out that partition thing. Now just loading up the required software. ———————————————— The world's not perfect, but it's not that bad. If we got each other, and that's all we have. I will be your brother, and I'll hold your hand. You should know I'll be there for you! | |||
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