laptop Lost the Preinstalled Windows 10

[milad1]

Hi there LINUS!

I lost my preinstalled windows 10 on my laptop.

now my laptop is infected with a malicious and infected version of windows 10, which is not original.

I contacted the Acer Support they offered me to buy an eRecover media USB for 50$ to solve this.

I have several major problems with this solution they provided for me.

the most important is my country is sanctioned by trump and ummm you know the rest...

the second is I'm a software engineer and I can image the eRecovery media on an arbitrary USB. why they are charging me 50$ for this.

US Store

Canadian Store

I hope you have a solution for me to get my OG preinstalled windows 10 back.

 

- One of your big fans of your YouTube channel.

[Sfekke]

Acer will indeed charge you for their OEM edition.

If you can track down the drivers of your laptop (Google Acer ModelNumber drivers) you can do it yourself if so download all of them.

Get an empty USB drive of 8GB or more, download this tool from Microsoft.

Open it and follow the options to "Create install media" once done copy the drivers on that USB as well (Make a new folder called "Drivers").

Reboot & spam/rapidly press F8-F9-F10-F11 or F12. this depends on the laptop, try it out a few times.

It'll bring you to a boot menu, where you'll select your USB, not sure which one is your USB? Try them all, nothing can go wrong here.

Once done it'll get you into the Windows install, follow the instructions & when asked to start from scratch or upgrade, go for start from scratch.

If not done yet, BACKUP IMPORTANT FILES! then delete all partitions & select the 1 remaining.

From here let it run once at the desktop install drivers, you put those on the USB inside the drivers folder.

Commonly installed applications can be easily/quickly installed with Ninite, Chrome/Discord & more.

 

Hopefully this isn't too complex

As a quick side-note Linus doesn't have time to reply to all/most topics, but you can spot daddy @LinusTech from time to time

If something isn't clear, feel free to reply & ask clarification!

[milad1]

Basically you are saying to install a windows from a USB.

I've been there. done that. On many devices.

the link you sent me from microsoft... it's windows.

"

Create Windows 10 installation media

"

to my knowledge windows is not free...

[0x1e]

1 hour ago, milad1 said:

Basically you are saying to install a windows from a USB.

I've been there. done that. On many devices.

the link you sent me from microsoft... it's windows.

"

Create Windows 10 installation media

"

to my knowledge windows is not free...

It is for you.
When you bought your laptop it has came with a key, a key you paid for. As long as you use that key only on that laptop then you can use it as many times as you like.

 

 

edit : Unlike other versions of Windows Microsoft has made the Windows 10 ISO publicly downloadable.

[Jason Sullivan]

When you went through the out of box experience and set your computer up with a Microsoft account; the key for the OPS is tied to your Microsoft account so no need for a key.

[Sfekke]

14 hours ago, 0x1e said:

It is for you.
When you bought your laptop it has came with a key, a key you paid for. As long as you use that key only on that laptop then you can use it as many times as you like.

 

 

edit : Unlike other versions of Windows Microsoft has made the Windows 10 ISO publicly downloadable.

Exactly.

It binds your motherboard or another component, and if you wanted it also used the MS account making it possible to do a Windows install without key, meaning reinstall Windows 10 & connect to the internet and it should activate.

However make sure you select the same version!

A machine running Home now will not activate the Pro edition!

[demonix00]

On 04/07/2018 at 5:30 PM, milad1 said:

Basically you are saying to install a windows from a USB.

I've been there. done that. On many devices.

the link you sent me from microsoft... it's windows.

"

Create Windows 10 installation media

"

to my knowledge windows is not free...

Windows 10 is free since you can use it with a few restrictions without entering a product key, but as your laptop already has a product key (hard coded into the BIOS), then you can use that tool to download the latest version of windows 10 and tell acer to go do one since you have a bloat free version of windows (except for the bloat M$ crams down your throat on every new install).

[ZacoAttaco]

20 hours ago, Sfekke said:

However make sure you select the same version!

A machine running Home now will not activate the Pro edition!

My guess it would be Windows 10 Home? I don't think Acer would put Pro on their laptops. 

 

Also out of personal curiosity, would selecting a different region invalidate the key?

[Sfekke]

17 minutes ago, ZacoAttaco said:

My guess it would be Windows 10 Home? I don't think Acer would put Pro on their laptops. 

 

Also out of personal curiosity, would selecting a different region invalidate the key?

Ehh I doubt so as well, but checking it doesn't take long and prevents doing the same thing twice.

Not sure if it region locks, I started with the Dutch edition and now run an English install.