Can I reinstall windows without the product key?

[PJemus]

I bought a computer off of someone, and it has windows 10 activated. I tried installing graphics card drivers, but the system crashed and now it is bricked. I reset the windows of the PC, but I can't get in because it requires a password or something that i was never given (and I feel like was never set, perhaps windows is corrupted somehow). Is there a way to reinstall windows without needing to get another product key? 

note: The PC can't go in to safe mode.  

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

6 minutes ago, PJemus said:

I bought a computer off of someone, and it has windows 10 activated. I tried installing graphics card drivers, but the system crashed and now it is bricked. I reset the windows of the PC, but I can't get in because it requires a password or something that i was never given (and I feel like was never set, perhaps windows is corrupted somehow). Is there a way to reinstall windows without needing to get another product key? 

note: The PC can't go in to safe mode.  

Depending on how old the board is, you may be able to reinstall the OS without having to input the product key as newer boards will have it imbedded into the BIOS. 

[PJemus]

4 minutes ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

Depending on how old the board is, you may be able to reinstall the OS without having to input the product key as newer boards will have it imbedded into the BIOS. 

It's LGA775

[PJemus]

It says there are no administrator accounts on this computer. Is there a default sign in or something that it is asking for?

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

3 minutes ago, PJemus said:

It's LGA775

No chance then. That's way before the days of Windows 8 which is roughly when BIOSes started to get that functionality. 

[PineyCreek]

1 minute ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

No chance then. That's way before the days of Windows 8 which is roughly when BIOSes started to get that functionality. 

That function's UEFI linked, right?

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

5 minutes ago, PineyCreek said:

That function's UEFI linked, right?

It should be. But UEFI was way after LGA 775. I was only around the second and third generation Intel Core iX (Sandy and Ivy Bridge) where there was a huge shift from the legacy BIOS to UEFI.

[PJemus]

Can someone tell me how to log in to windows if there are no administrator accounts on the system? Or how to do anything? Why would it even allow anyone to reset windows without any administrator accounts?

[Solderben]

10 minutes ago, PJemus said:

Can someone tell me how to log in to windows if there are no administrator accounts on the system? Or how to do anything? Why would it even allow anyone to reset windows without any administrator accounts?

I would personally just do a clean install. Go to another computer and get a USB key made. That is if your ok with loosing all of your data on it.

 

Also if you choose this route. Microsoft logs your windows 10 license key with your device ID on their servers. So when your reinstall it. You can just select I don't have a product key during set up and when you connect to the internet at the end it'll activate

[Soldre]

1 hour ago, PJemus said:

I bought a computer off of someone, and it has windows 10 activated. I tried installing graphics card drivers, but the system crashed and now it is bricked. I reset the windows of the PC, but I can't get in because it requires a password or something that i was never given (and I feel like was never set, perhaps windows is corrupted somehow). Is there a way to reinstall windows without needing to get another product key? 

note: The PC can't go in to safe mode.  

You won't have an activated copy but I think you should be able to download windows without the key. I have several times and then used a key later on.

[chiller15]

1 hour ago, PJemus said:

Can someone tell me how to log in to windows if there are no administrator accounts on the system? Or how to do anything? Why would it even allow anyone to reset windows without any administrator accounts?

Unfortunately you won't find that information on here. Accessing an administrator account without the password is pretty much discussing how to hack into user accounts.

 

My recommendation would be to reinstall Windows.

[homeap5]

10 hours ago, chiller15 said:

Unfortunately you won't find that information on here. Accessing an administrator account without the password is pretty much discussing how to hack into user accounts.

 

My recommendation would be to reinstall Windows.

I see no difference between "how to enter administrator account" and "how to made workaround, remove everything because something I cannot do, and enter administrator account (mine this time) anyway". Files on hdd are not encoded (mostly), so if anyone wants to copy them - it's not a very big problem - with or without password.

[LogicalDrm]

If you want the files, create bootable USB with pretty much any major linux distro. They have live-boot mode which lets you access files. You can install Windows without key. Win10 has 30-day full trial and you can run it unactivated after that.

[chiller15]

14 hours ago, homeap5 said:

I see no difference between "how to enter administrator account" and "how to made workaround, remove everything because something I cannot do, and enter administrator account (mine this time) anyway". Files on hdd are not encoded (mostly), so if anyone wants to copy them - it's not a very big problem - with or without password.

That's not the point. This is a public forum and discussing how to break into any Windows administrator account would be visible to anyone, plus this is something that I'm pretty sure is against the forum rules.

 

It is possible to break into Windows accounts and there are plenty of guides out there on the Internet, but from past experiences, this forum isn't the place to discuss them.

[homeap5]

1 hour ago, chiller15 said:

That's not the point. This is a public forum and discussing how to break into any Windows administrator account would be visible to anyone, plus this is something that I'm pretty sure is against the forum rules.

 

It is possible to break into Windows accounts and there are plenty of guides out there on the Internet, but from past experiences, this forum isn't the place to discuss them.

I'm just saying that your suggestion (reinstalling system) is almost the same - he reinstall Windows and access computer the same way like he break into old one.

We must assume that he not asking about anything wrong. There is something like "presumption of innocence".

[chiller15]

1 minute ago, homeap5 said:

I'm just saying that your suggestion (reinstalling system) is almost the same - he reinstall Windows and access computer the same way like he break into old one.

We must assume that he not asking about anything wrong. There is something like "presumption of innocence".

Not necessarily. Reinstalling Windows would also erase the data on that drive. Just because in your instance your data isn't important doesn't mean that someone else's isn't. The guide to break into an account would be available to anyone wishing to access data that they shouldn't.

[PJemus]

Sorry I forgot to reply to this thread. @everyone, Windows 10 keeps the product key on the cloud based on the hardware ID of the system. I reinstalled from USB as a fresh install and it was activated automatically. I believe the same is for windows 7 too.

[LogicalDrm]

6 hours ago, PJemus said:

I believe the same is for windows 7 too.

Its not. Win7 and previous needed written key. Which is why all laptops and prebuild systems have COA sticker on casing. I haven't used Win8/.1 in that length to know if that key would be held in cloud or not.

[nanaki]

On 7/16/2018 at 1:57 AM, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

No chance then. That's way before the days of Windows 8 which is roughly when BIOSes started to get that functionality. 

LGA775 is a cpu socket and nothing more. That has zi to do with bios and zip to do with weather or not a windows install is tied to the bios what is sometimes called bios locked. What that basically means is if the windows 10 install was a oem install or done with say a dell oem disk on a dell computer with a compatible bios board chipset etc then then the windows 10 will be activated. So long as you have a dell oem dvd of windows 10 and the above is true it will work just fine and no activation nor key will be needed.

 

Fast way to find out is grab a spare hd install on it with your disk or if you have a recovery partition use your systems hotkey to do a factory data reset. How ever it may not work even then as yor being asked for a admin password So you may need to use a password recovery tool to reset the password for the account to blank or what have you first then try factory reset etc. This may or may not work.