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Possible to fresh install Windows 10 without knowing your key?

Rawity

Recently I've been getting a lot of crashes so I thought about doing a fresh install. Now, I've been backing up all my important files and got an USB ready and all that.

But when I was about to install it to the USB, I remembered that I don't know my Windows key as I just cloned my drive from my previous laptop to my new desktop with the Windows on it. 

So my question is: Is it possible to do a fresh install (Windows 10 if that changes anything) without knowing your key? Assuming it would ask for it when I was about to install it

 

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The key is tied to your CPU+MOBO. When you re-install windows on it (even if you got a totally new HDD) it will just automatically activate. You will never need to put in a product key.

 

Remember, this is as long as that computer ALREADY had win10 activated on it.

When in doubt, re-format.

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2 minutes ago, pwn_intended said:

The key is tied to your CPU+MOBO. When you re-install windows on it (even if you got a totally new HDD) it will just automatically activate. You will never need to put in a product key.

 

Remember, this is as long as that computer ALREADY had win10 activated on it.

Ya I'm currently running Windows 10 on it, so that means I'm good and I can just start the fresh install? 

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8 minutes ago, Rawity said:

So my question is: Is it possible to do a fresh install (Windows 10 if that changes anything) without knowing your key? Assuming it would ask for it when I was about to install it

 

Yeah, you can just skip it and plug it in later. 

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1 minute ago, IAmLamp said:

Yeah, you can just skip it and plug it in later. 

He doesn't even need to plug it in later if he had it installed previously on his machine. Windows will automatically import the key as it's tied to the motherboard as previously mentioned.

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As other people said, it should be stored in the BIOS.  Just to be sure though, you can easily grab your key with ProduKey.  It's portable so you don't even need to install anything.

Make sure to quote or tag me (@JoostinOnline) or I won't see your response!

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If you cloned windows then it shouldn't be activated...

 

If for some reason it is, then it might get deactivated during the clean install because it was originally installed on your other computer.

 

Do this first: http://www.howtogeek.com/226510/how-to-use-your-free-windows-10-license-after-changing-your-pc’s-hardware/

 

Then clean install: http://www.howtogeek.com/224342/how-to-clean-install-windows-10/

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If you login via microsoft account, then your product is already associated with that account. You should be able to do a clean install without any issues. 

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58 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

You can always use Settings -> Update and Recovery -> Recovery -> Reset.

I don't know why I didn't think of that. This is much better because you don't have to reinstall drivers 

Make sure to quote or tag me (@JoostinOnline) or I won't see your response!

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5 hours ago, M.Yurizaki said:

You still might, so I would keep a minimal set somewhere just in case.

Use this.  About 6 months ago I was hired by a school to upgrade like 20 netbooks to Windows 10 (among other things), and they needed new drivers.  I used that to back up the drivers on an updated one and reinstall them on all the others, so I didn't have to download them each time.

Make sure to quote or tag me (@JoostinOnline) or I won't see your response!

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To add: If during the setup, Windows 10 Setup asks you to enter a product key, just click on the blue link: "I don't have a product key". Windows will resume the installation, and when you first connect to the internet, and do a Windows Update, by then Windows 10 will detect your system and activate.

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