- Hello dear administrators! Question: how to find out the OEM key of a licensed Windows 8.1 laptop if it does not have a hard drive? Or in other words, how to find out the Windows 8.1 key sewn into laptop BIOS? My problem is that my HDD and I bought a new one, now I want to install on it the previously preinstalled Windows 8.1 Single Language (For one language) store, but I'm afraid that the system is not automatically activated during installation. I read on the Internet that with the help of some programs you can find out the Windows 8.1 key,“sewn” into the BIOS of the laptop and this key is saved in any case, for the entire life of the laptop.
- Hi admin! I bought a laptop a year ago, then Windows 8 was installed on it, which I immediately demolished and installed Windows 7, but now I’m thinking of returning Windows 8 back, but I don’t know the license key, can I see it somewhere? The Windows key used to be printed on the bottom of the laptop, but now it's not there.
How to find out the OEM key of a licensed Windows 8.1 laptop if it does not have a hard drive. Or in other words, how to find out the Windows 8.1 key "embedded" in the laptop's BIOS
Hi friends! With the advent of laptops installed Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and BIOS UEFI, Microsoft has changed the rules for distributing licensed copies of Windows, now the license key operating system is no longer on the sticker located on the bottom of the laptop, from now on the key is “sewn” into text form to the ACPI MSD table of the BIOS of the laptop. What to do, these are the new rules, and according to them, it is not necessary for an ordinary user to know the key of the operating system installed on his laptop.
Despite this, you can view the contents of the ACPI tables and find out the Windows 8.1 key in BIOS using various utilities: RWEverything, OemKey, ShowKeyPlus, ProduKey. If your laptop boots up, then these utilities can be run directly in a running Windows and no matter which one this moment you have an operating system installed: Windows 7 or Windows 10, regardless of this, any of the programs I have listed consider the Windows 8.1 key from the BIOS.
You can also find out the key if the laptop does not have a hard drive at all, in which case we will have to boot the laptop from the bootable Live CD AOMEI PE Builder flash drive, this flash drive contains all the programs I mentioned, in today's article I will show you how to create such a flash drive.
- Note: If you look at the question from the other side, then it is not necessary for an ordinary user to recognize the Windows 8.1 key sewn into the BIOS of a laptop, and that's why. The fact is that when installing on a laptop exactly the version of the operating system that was preinstalled on it from the store (in most cases, Windows 8.1 Single Language), the key will be substituted during system installation automatically and you will not need to enter anything. In other words, to know the key prescribed in the ACPI MSD table of the laptop BIOS is not needed under any circumstances, even if you replace the hard drive on the laptop. I wrote about all this with details in this.
For example, let's take a laptop with Windows 8.1 preinstalled from the store, delete everything from the hard drive and install another Windows 10 operating system, and then run our utilities and find out the Win 8.1 key registered in the BIOS.
Download all programs in one archive on my cloud storage.
So, we look at the Windows 8.1 key registered in the BIOS with the programs: ShowKeyPlus, OemKey, RWEverything, ProduKey.
First in line program ShowKeyPlus
The program displays detailed information.
product name(The version of the operating system currently installed on the laptop) - Windows 10 Single Language (For one language).
Product ID : Product ID .
Installed Key: Key installed now on Windows laptop 10 Single Language.
OEM Key: TO key from Windows 8.1, prescribed into the ACPI MSD table of the laptop BIOS (what we need is the key embedded in the BIOS).
OEM Edition: Operating system version ( Windows 8.1 Single Language) preinstalled by the laptop manufacturer. It is for this version that the key is suitable ( OEM Key) and it will be substituted automatically during the installation of the system, that is, you do not have to enter it.
OEM Key Program
Shows only the key Windows 8.1 sewn into the BIOS of the laptop.
Go to the program folder and run the executable file rw.exe.
Click on the button ACPI.
Click on the MSDM button and see the Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 key.
Already familiar to you from our previous articles, the ProduKey program will also cope with the task of determining the key of a laptop sewn into the BIOS.
The utility shows two keys, the first one is the OEM key registered to the ACPI MSD table of the laptop BIOS, and the second, the key of the currently installed Windows 10.
How to find out the OEM key of a licensed Windows 8.1 laptop if it does not have a hard drive?
Create a bootable USB flash drive Live CD AOMEI PE Builder
Friends, in this case, we need to boot the laptop from a bootable USB flash drive Live CD AOMEI PE Builder. Download the flash drive image on my cloud storage.
After downloading the ISO image, run the program, it is for her that we will create a bootable USB flash drive.
In the main window of the WinSetupFromUSB program, select our flash drive (be careful, all data on the flash drive will be deleted).
Put a tick in the box Auto format it with FBinst and tick FAT32.
Check the box Vista/7/8/Server 2008/2012 based ISO and click on the button on the right to open the explorer window.
Explorer opens, find the Live CD AOMEI PE Builder ISO image, select it with the left mouse button and click "Open".
- Hello dear administrators! Question: how to find out the OEM key of a licensed Windows 8.1 laptop if it does not have a hard drive? Or in other words, how to find out the Windows 8.1 key embedded in the laptop's BIOS? My problem is that my hard drive failed and I bought a new one, now I want to install on it the Windows 8.1 Single Language pre-installed from the store, but I'm afraid that the system is not automatically activated during installation. I read on the Internet that with the help of some programs you can find out the Windows 8.1 key,“sewn” into the BIOS of the laptop and this key is saved in any case, for the entire life of the laptop.
- Hi admin! I bought a laptop a year ago, then Windows 8 was installed on it, which I immediately demolished and installed Windows 7, but now I’m thinking of returning Windows 8 back, but I don’t know the license key, can I see it somewhere? The Windows key used to be printed on the bottom of the laptop, but now it's not there.
How to find out the OEM key of a licensed Windows 8.1 laptop if it does not have a hard drive. Or in other words, how to find out the Windows 8.1 key "embedded" in the laptop's BIOS
Hi friends! With the advent of laptops with pre-installed Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and UEFI BIOS, Microsoft has changed the rules for distributing licensed copies of Windows, now the license key of the operating system is no longer on the sticker located on the bottom of the laptop, from now on the key is “sewn” in text form into the ACPI MSD BIOS table laptop. What to do, these are the new rules, and according to them, it is not necessary for an ordinary user to know the key of the operating system installed on his laptop.
Despite this, you can view the contents of the ACPI tables and find out the Windows 8.1 key in BIOS using various utilities: RWEverything, OemKey, ShowKeyPlus, ProduKey. If your laptop boots up, then these utilities can be run directly in running Windows and it doesn’t matter which operating system you currently have installed: Windows 7 or Windows 10, regardless of this, any of the programs I have listed consider the Windows 8.1 key from BIOS.
You can also find out the key if the laptop does not have a hard drive at all, in which case we will have to boot the laptop from the bootable Live CD AOMEI PE Builder flash drive, this flash drive contains all the programs I mentioned, in today's article I will show you how to create such a flash drive.
- Note: If you look at the question from the other side, then it is not necessary for an ordinary user to recognize the Windows 8.1 key sewn into the BIOS of a laptop, and that's why. The fact is that when installing on a laptop exactly the version of the operating system that was preinstalled on it from the store (in most cases, Windows 8.1 Single Language), the key will be substituted during system installation automatically and you will not need to enter anything. In other words, to know the key prescribed in the ACPI MSD table of the laptop BIOS is not needed under any circumstances, even if you replace the hard drive on the laptop. I wrote about all this with details in this.
For example, let's take a laptop with Windows 8.1 preinstalled from the store, delete everything from the hard drive and install another Windows 10 operating system, and then run our utilities and find out the Win 8.1 key registered in the BIOS.
Download all programs in one archive on my cloud storage.
So, we look at the Windows 8.1 key registered in the BIOS with the programs: ShowKeyPlus, OemKey, RWEverything, ProduKey.
First in line program ShowKeyPlus
The program displays detailed information.
product name(The version of the operating system currently installed on the laptop) - Windows 10 Single Language (For one language).
Product ID : Product ID .
Installed Key: The key is currently installed on the laptop Windows 10 Single Language.
OEM Key: TO key from Windows 8.1, prescribed into the ACPI MSD table of the laptop BIOS (what we need is the key embedded in the BIOS).
OEM Edition: Operating system version ( Windows 8.1 Single Language) preinstalled by the laptop manufacturer. It is for this version that the key is suitable ( OEM Key) and it will be substituted automatically during the installation of the system, that is, you do not have to enter it.
OEM Key Program
Shows only the key Windows 8.1 sewn into the BIOS of the laptop.
Go to the program folder and run the executable file rw.exe.
Click on the button ACPI.
Click on the MSDM button and see the Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 key.
Already familiar to you from our previous articles, the ProduKey program will also cope with the task of determining the key of a laptop sewn into the BIOS.
The utility shows two keys, the first one is the OEM key registered to the ACPI MSD table of the laptop BIOS, and the second, the key of the currently installed Windows 10.
How to find out the OEM key of a licensed Windows 8.1 laptop if it does not have a hard drive?
Create a bootable USB flash drive Live CD AOMEI PE Builder
Friends, in this case, we need to boot the laptop from a bootable USB flash drive Live CD AOMEI PE Builder. Download the flash drive image on my cloud storage.
After downloading the ISO image, run the program, it is for her that we will create a bootable USB flash drive.
In the main window of the WinSetupFromUSB program, select our flash drive (be careful, all data on the flash drive will be deleted).
Put a tick in the box Auto format it with FBinst and tick FAT32.
Check the box Vista/7/8/Server 2008/2012 based ISO and click on the button on the right to open the explorer window.
Explorer opens, find the Live CD AOMEI PE Builder ISO image, select it with the left mouse button and click "Open".
Hello dear readers. Do you know how to activate licensed Windows correctly? Say what you know, hmm, I thought so too, but somehow I got a laptop in my hands, on which, after installation new Windows 8, I was going to activate it with the key, but to my surprise, I couldn’t do it. To be more precise, after clicking on the "Activate Windows" button, instead of a prompt to enter a key, incomprehensible errors appeared, such as this one: "DNS name is not specified."
Over time, of course, I figured out what was wrong, it turned out that during the installation of the system, some incomprehensible key was picked up, which at the time of activation was simply not recognized by the system. This problem was solved only by deleting the old activation key, and of course by installing a working key that came with the laptop. Therefore, I decided to write an article based on my personal example, how I managed to remove the old activation key and activate Windows from scratch.
So, I had a laptop with a preinstalled operating system and, of course, a key that was sewn into the BIOS. and setting it up with the help of the utility . Then, I opened the properties of the computer and immediately clicked on the button " Activate Windows».
The activation process immediately began, I was even surprised why the system did not even offer to enter my key. Well, okay, I thought, maybe the computer automatically substituted the necessary activation key itself. But just a moment later, an error appeared, which I wrote about a little higher. All subsequent attempts to activate Windows were unchanged, except that the error code changed.
Well, I thought and tried to find a field in which it would be possible to indicate the key that I got from the BIOS, but instead some incomprehensible key was already indicated everywhere. I could see only a few characters, but that was enough to understand that this code did not match what I had prepared. Thinking that there was some kind of confusion with the activation keys, I decided to delete the old key and re-enter the new one.
In general, after I deleted the old activation key and re-led the one that I prepared, everything worked out for me. At first I saw the word "Success!!!", but then what Windows activation completed.
So if you find yourself in a similar situation and need to know how to remove old activation key, then just below you can find a simple and understandable guide on how to do it.
Delete the old activation key
To remove the old activation key in Windows 8, as with many other system settings, we need a command line, or rather, we just have to run a few commands there.
So, let's start by launching command line, of course with hung administrator rights, otherwise, when you follow the next steps, you may not get anything.
Okay, the command line is running, now in the window that appears, write the following command:
slmgr.vbs /upk
and of course press Enter».
A window should appear notifying you that the key was successfully deleted.
That's all, in general, everything is much simpler than it seemed. Thus, we will be able to remove the old activation key.
After that, you can easily specify new key and activate Windows.
You can do this in the Windows 8 menu or write two more commands in CMD:
slmgr.vbs –ato
Thus, we will enter a new key and start the system activation.
How to remove an old activation key in Windows 8, 7, 10
In today's article, we will explore the issue of how to find out serial number Windows, which was pre-installed on your equipment upon purchase.
Recently, Microsoft has changed the way they license their OEM products, namely Microsoft Windows. We are talking about those types of licenses that are usually pre-installed on laptops and system blocks manufacturer or assemblers, namely OEM licenses, developer licenses and single language versions.
Previously, when you bought a laptop with Windows 7 installed, you could find a sticker on the back of the equipment with the name of the purchased license and its activation key, which usually consisted of 25 characters. But since the release of Windows 8, the methods of distributing licenses have changed and now on the back of your laptop you will find only the Microsoft branded label, which confirms the right to use the operating system. Neither the name of the license nor the key will be on the sticker!
Why is that? The thing is that with the advent of the UEFI BIOS, it became possible to sew the key directly into it, and the system is activated automatically, without manually entering the key, provided that the laptop has exactly the edition of the operating system for which the serial number is preinstalled. Those. If you bought a Windows 8 laptop with a single language license and then upgraded to Windows 8 Professional, then your copy of Windows will not be activated.
- contact service technical support equipment manufacturer. It will take a lot of time and will cost a lot of money. In addition, you will receive a clean operating system with basic settings and you will definitely lose all personal information.
- Use regular resources Windows recovery. In this case, you simply roll back your system to its original state from the copy that is stored on the “invisible” partition of your hard drive unless you delete it.
This method is more likely designed for novice users, but not very convenient in practice. The thing is that when the system is rolled back, the user gets the original pre-installed copy of Windows, with all the previously installed demo programs, proprietary utilities and other garbage that clogs the system and in most cases will never come in handy for an ordinary, and advanced user. You will also not be able to change the hard disk partitions as it would be more convenient for you during recovery.
In addition, you must copy your personal data and settings to external storage in advance, otherwise you will lose them. This also brings some inconvenience.
If for various reasons you do not want to carry out these operations yourself, then we are ready to offer you our assistance in installing the operating system on your equipment. Check out our website!
- What if the recovery partition does not exist, or recovery from it is impossible for various reasons? In this case, you will need to download the distribution kit of the operating system that is associated with your purchased license. Next, you need to write it to DVD disc or create a bootable USB flash drive, and then perform a clean installation of the operating system.
But the difficulty is that Microsoft has not officially published its distributions for download for a long time and finding the edition of Windows you need can cause problems, and downloading various modified pirated assemblies is also wrong. Another disadvantage in this approach is the problem with the initial activation after a clean installation. Windows for various reasons, despite the fact that the assembly is selected correctly, may not want to go through activation.
How to get a Windows license key on a laptop
That is why we will need to extract the license key from the BIOS in order to activate the system manually via the Internet or by phone. To do this, we need to open the command line: Start > Run > cmd.exe
In the window that appears, run the command:
wmic path softwarelicensingservice get oa3xoriginalproductkey
