Windows key lost after factory reset pc

[DaytonXVI]

The computer I have is a prebuilt hp omen and it came with windows 11 already installed. I factory reset my pc awhile ago and after i got my computer up and running again I dont have a windows key anymore. I tried multiple things to try and fix the issue but nothing has worked. I finally just bought a new key from microsoft but it wont even let me put in the new key. I tried factory resetting my computer again but still did nothing. I dont know what to do anymore i am so stumped.

[DoctorNick]

15 minutes ago, DaytonXVI said:

The computer I have is a prebuilt hp omen and it came with windows 11 already installed. I factory reset my pc awhile ago and after i got my computer up and running again I dont have a windows key anymore. I tried multiple things to try and fix the issue but nothing has worked. I finally just bought a new key from microsoft but it wont even let me put in the new key. I tried factory resetting my computer again but still did nothing. I dont know what to do anymore i am so stumped.

 

 

 

Backup your stuff and make a clean install. Also license should be on the motherboard, so it'll be automatically activated when installing, unless something odd happened. https://www.microsoft.com/software-download/windows11

Use media creation tool to make a bootable USB flashdrive with windows 11

[indrora]

If you do need to retrieve the windows key burned into your motherboard from a major OEM like HP/Dell/etc, you can do so with this at an Admin powershell:

 

(Get-WmiObject -query 'select * from SoftwareLicensingService').OA3xOriginalProductKey

If there is one baked in, you'll see it here. If there isn't, you'll get nothing. 

 

Seconding however the comment to get clean, fresh windows media. If you're uncertain and you need some guidance, https://rufus.ie/en/ -- Rufus can guide you through it and download known clean installation media (the download option is enabled if you allow it to look for updates)

[DaytonXVI]

17 minutes ago, indrora said:

If you do need to retrieve the windows key burned into your motherboard from a major OEM like HP/Dell/etc, you can do so with this at an Admin powershell:

 

(Get-WmiObject -query 'select * from SoftwareLicensingService').OA3xOriginalProductKey

If there is one baked in, you'll see it here. If there isn't, you'll get nothing. 

 

Seconding however the comment to get clean, fresh windows media. If you're uncertain and you need some guidance, https://rufus.ie/en/ -- Rufus can guide you through it and download known clean installation media (the download option is enabled if you allow it to look for updates)

My computer is an hp omen that i bought from best buy. I pasted what you told me to in PowerShell and got that. Does this mean I don't have a key burned into my motherboard?

[indrora]

3 minutes ago, DaytonXVI said:

My computer is an hp omen that i bought from best buy. I pasted what you told me to in PowerShell and got that. Does this mean I don't have a key burned into my motherboard?

If you don't have one, it should return an empty string: 

This could be as simple as the software license service is stuck for some reason, or as hard to diagnose as disk corruption. It could be something weird with a microsoft account misapplied during setup, or it could be something like TronScript, Shutup10, or any of those "anti bloatware" tools breaking something in collateral damage.

 

By far the simplest option, without having a lot of possibly-relevant information, is to back up everything you care about, then pave the install clean from media you get from Microsoft directly.