I need someone smarter than me on this subject please help

[Grayson2000]

OK long story short I have relatively decent knowledge about building PCs I’ve built one and I really enjoyed it for my birthday. My parents decided to get me a used PC off of eBay so I can tinker on it and have a really nice media PC, the PC and the components worked just fine but there’s a Windows key issue when I bought the PC. It had no hard drive in it anymore so I installed a  SSD. And proceeded to try to install windows everything booted up, but it would not except my personal windows pro key. I stayed on the phone with Windows tech-support for about three days straight at about three hours at a time, but they cannot help me with any of it so as of right now I’m having to run Linux Which the PC is running fine on Linux but I would prefer to use windows anybody that can guide me with some advice on if I need to either buy a new motherboard for it or do I have to grit my teeth and yet again by another windows license 

[aledsav1]

have you tried windows 11? 

[Srijan Verma]

where did u get the key from? Is it already being used by a device?

[191x7]

41 minutes ago, Grayson2000 said:

OK long story short I have relatively decent knowledge about building PCs I’ve built one and I really enjoyed it for my birthday. My parents decided to get me a used PC off of eBay so I can tinker on it and have a really nice media PC, the PC and the components worked just fine but there’s a Windows key issue when I bought the PC. It had no hard drive in it anymore so I installed a  SSD. And proceeded to try to install windows everything booted up, but it would not except my personal windows pro key. I stayed on the phone with Windows tech-support for about three days straight at about three hours at a time, but they cannot help me with any of it so as of right now I’m having to run Linux Which the PC is running fine on Linux but I would prefer to use windows anybody that can guide me with some advice on if I need to either buy a new motherboard for it or do I have to grit my teeth and yet again by another windows license 

Buy a Windows key, they are cheap ($2 to $20 depending on where you look).

[We Didnt_t start_the_fire]

18 minutes ago, 191x7 said:

Buy a Windows key, they are cheap ($2 to $20 depending on where you look).

And free ones (legitimate free ones), at worst install win 10 I believe it's still free upgrade. 

[Grayson2000]

11 hours ago, aledsav1 said:

have you tried windows 11? 

On the PCs it’s a little bit older it has an 

i7 4770k and I don’t believe it meets the requirements for windows 11

[Grayson2000]

11 hours ago, Srijan Verma said:

where did u get the key from? Is it already being used by a device?

Yes, my key is being used. I bought it from Amazon like in 2020 I believe straight from Microsoft you know it came with a little USB and everything.

[Grayson2000]

10 hours ago, 191x7 said:

Buy a Windows key, they are cheap ($2 to $20 depending on where you look).

 

10 hours ago, We Didnt_t start_the_fire said:

And free ones (legitimate free ones), at worst install win 10 I believe it's still free upgrade. 

I was planning on running windows 10 from the get-go is there anyway you can link a legitimate place to buy one and then my next question is once it’s activated will it be sure to take away the watermark because I think the problem is since the previous owner had windows on it he took the hard drive out and it’s still looking for the original key and I don’t know if it makes a difference, but this is an prebuilt PC

[aledsav1]

So you can do fresh install of windows 11 on older pcs no issues, there are plenty of guides/videos on how to do it: https://pureinfotech.com/install-windows-11-unsupported-pc/

 

download windows 11 media creation tool: https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows11

 

and follow that guide

 

but if you just want a windows 10 key cheap, then I always get from here 'electronic first.com' make sure you get the right one pro or home etc..I have bought a few times from them no issues

 

So if the old hdd have been removed it makes no difference, if the motherboard has a windows key built in but I doubt it as its older pc? then it would just install the key to your new windows instal if it was the same kind, like windows 10 home or pro etc, but you are trying to use a key that was associated with other hardware and microsoft are a pain, there are ways around it

[PcBeExpensive]

3 hours ago, Grayson2000 said:

Yes, my key is being used. I bought it from Amazon like in 2020 I believe straight from Microsoft you know it came with a little USB and everything.

if you have used the windows key on another pc I dont think it would work again.

[Grayson2000]

2 hours ago, aledsav1 said:

So you can do fresh install of windows 11 on older pcs no issues, there are plenty of guides/videos on how to do it: https://pureinfotech.com/install-windows-11-unsupported-pc/

 

download windows 11 media creation tool: https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows11

 

and follow that guide

 

but if you just want a windows 10 key cheap, then I always get from here 'electronic first.com' make sure you get the right one pro or home etc..I have bought a few times from them no issues

 

So if the old hdd have been removed it makes no difference, if the motherboard has a windows key built in but I doubt it as its older pc? then it would just install the key to your new windows instal if it was the same kind, like windows 10 home or pro etc, but you are trying to use a key that was associated with other hardware and microsoft are a pain, there are ways around it

OK I think I’ll give it a try today right now and if you come up with any other thoughts or ideas, let me know and I’ll let you know if it works

[Grayson2000]

15 hours ago, aledsav1 said:

have you tried windows 11? 

Thank you for your help. I did find a solution everyone was so helpful and I’m so grateful for y’all. This is the first time I’ve ever tried a form and it is been two days and y’all handled it and help me. God bless y’all and have a wonderful day.

[Grayson2000]

1 hour ago, Grayson2000 said:

OK I think I’ll give it a try today right now and if you come up with any other thoughts or ideas, let me know and I’ll let you know if it works

Thank you for your help. I did find a solution everyone was so helpful and I’m so grateful for y’all. This is the first time I’ve ever tried a form and it is been two days and y’all handled it and help me. God bless y’all and have a wonderful day

[Grayson2000]

1 hour ago, PcBeExpensive said:

if you have used the windows key on another pc I dont think it would work again.

Thank you for your help. I did find a solution everyone was so helpful and I’m so grateful for y’all. This is the first time I’ve ever tried a form and it is been two days and y’all handled it and help me. God bless y’all and have a wonderful day

[Grayson2000]

Thank you for your help. I did find a solution everyone was so helpful and I’m so grateful for y’all. This is the first time I’ve ever tried a form and it is been two days and y’all handled it and help me. God bless y’all and have a wonderful day

[PcBeExpensive]

7 hours ago, Grayson2000 said:

Thank you for your help. I did find a solution everyone was so helpful and I’m so grateful for y’all. This is the first time I’ve ever tried a form and it is been two days and y’all handled it and help me. God bless y’all and have a wonderful day

your welcome. This place is like that, everyone helps alot and you get responses fast