windows did something extremely weird

[DraconicFire98]

so, i was due for a windows reinstall, it was getting slwo and i had too much installed. I completely formatted my drive, all the partitions and made a new one, installed windows. I skipped the product key activation because I had plans to activate it when it was done installing.

Install goes well, no errors or anything. I finish installing my drivers, steam etc. and when i get to windows activation, it says that it's already activated.. I checked what product key it was using with various tools that would reveal it, and it was using the same key that my last install used, wot

 

i am  SOOOO confused right now, I formatted all my drives that would keep the key, 

I know that it isn't a UEFI license or whatever, because last time i installed windows it didn't activate, and I used a windows 7 home premium OEM key i had lying around on an old pc

 

does the media creation tool make a pre-activated installer if you use the "use recommended settings for this pc" option?

 

this is all on windows 10 btw

[paddy-stone]

2 minutes ago, DraconicFire98 said:

so, i was due for a windows reinstall, it was getting slwo and i had too much installed. I completely formatted my drive, all the partitions and made a new one, installed windows. I skipped the product key activation because I had plans to activate it when it was done installing.

Install goes well, no errors or anything. I finish installing my drivers, steam etc. and when i get to windows activation, it says that it's already activated.. I checked what product key it was using with various tools that would reveal it, and it was using the same key that my last install used, wot

 

i am  SOOOO confused right now, I formatted all my drives that would keep the key, 

I know that it isn't a UEFI license or whatever, because last time i installed windows it didn't activate, and I used a windows 7 home premium OEM key i had lying around on an old pc

 

does the media creation tool make a pre-activated installer if you use the "use recommended settings for this pc" option?

 

this is all on windows 10 btw

UEFI motherboard can store windows product key.. so that's why.

[grimreeper132]

I believe windows leaves something on the drive even if you format it, meaning it can tell if windows has previously been installed on that PC, and from that automatically activates if it has been installed there before, I believe I could be wrong though

[DraconicFire98]

1 minute ago, paddy-stone said:

UEFI motherboard can store windows product key.. so that's why.

it can by default? like, even if it was a non-UEFI windows 7 key?

[ProjectBox153]

4 minutes ago, DraconicFire98 said:

I know that it isn't a UEFI license or whatever, because last time i installed windows it didn't activate, and I used a windows 7 home premium OEM key i had lying around on an old pc

this is all on windows 10 btw

How did you use a 7 key?

[grimreeper132]

1 minute ago, paddy-stone said:

UEFI motherboard can store windows product key.. so that's why.

oh is it on the UEFI thought it was on the hard drive as I have moved shit about and it's still worked like that, so yea, right whoops, I'm probably wrong then

[DraconicFire98]

Just now, Jamiec1130 said:

How did you use a 7 key?

i used it before the free period for 10 ended, and now it's registered permanently as a windows 7 and 10 key

[paddy-stone]

Pretty sure, but not an expert. This is to enable the eaxct scenario you described, where you just want to re-install. BTW, next time you can simply do a windows refresh, which will remove all the clutter/drivers and be exactly as a new install would anyway, so no need to actually re-install now.

[DraconicFire98]

1 minute ago, paddy-stone said:

Pretty sure, but not an expert. This is to enable the eaxct scenario you described, where you just want to re-install. BTW, next time you can simply do a windows refresh, which will remove all the clutter/drivers and be exactly as a new install would anyway, so no need to actually re-install now.

it was unpractical, i'm old fashioned and just do a reinstall

[paddy-stone]

2 minutes ago, DraconicFire98 said:

it was unpractical, i'm old fashioned and just do a reinstall

Yeah, I hear ya... and sometimes I do a fresh install too, but usually only when I have a hardware change that requires it like mobo change. There's nothing wrong with a fresh install at all... just easier if non hardware change to either do a refresh, or restore from image... <- this is my favourite, I make an image of the hard drive after a fresh install and commonly used programs and system edits... then if cluttered sometime I can just re-image the hard drive to make it like that again, no more long driver installs and installing programs and system edits until next hardware refresh

 

[DraconicFire98]

4 minutes ago, paddy-stone said:

Yeah, I hear ya... and sometimes I do a fresh install too, but usually only when I have a hardware change that requires it like mobo change. There's nothing wrong with a fresh install at all... just easier if non hardware change to either do a refresh, or restore from image... <- this is my favourite, I make an image of the hard drive after a fresh install and commonly used programs and system edits... then if cluttered sometime I can just re-image the hard drive to make it like that again, no more long driver installs and installing programs and system edits until next hardware refresh

 

iirc the last install was a drive transfer, i never actually reinstalled. just moved the drive from my old pc to the new one without reinstalling

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

Microsoft has their own database with Windows serials and hardware IDs.  If your hardware (mainly the motherboard serial number IIRC) had already been linked to a Windows 10 install (which happened when you upgraded during the free period), your new Win10 install will activate automatically as soon as the PC connects to the Microsoft servers. 

[Falconevo]

It is now based off the unique ID of the mainboard components.  This is done via the model of motherboard etc to gather a code to use for activation of a device. 

For example change the main motherboard and the ID will change meaning you would need to reactivate.

[DraconicFire98]

36 minutes ago, Captain Chaos said:

Microsoft has their own database with Windows serials and hardware IDs.  If your hardware (mainly the motherboard serial number IIRC) had already been linked to a Windows 10 install (which happened when you upgraded during the free period), your new Win10 install will activate automatically as soon as the PC connects to the Microsoft servers. 

 

1 minute ago, Falconevo said:

It is now based off the unique ID of the mainboard components.  This is done via the model of motherboard etc to gather a code to use for activation of a device. 

For example change the main motherboard and the ID will change meaning you would need to reactivate.

interesting, the more i get into PC building, the more i know. lel

[Falconevo]

its a good thing, you can reinstall the OS as many times as you wish and still reactivate on the same mainboard.  Helpful for Microsoft as it reduces the amount of license requests they get when people reinstall and reach their maximum key activation from back in the days of Vista, Win7 and Win8/8.1.