Hello,
HP ENVY laptop.
I need my OEM "Windows 10 HOME" activation key because my Windows 10 is not activated anymore. There is no sticker on my PC and I cannot access the battery.
I tried my friend "Windows 10 PRO" activation key and now my HP envy laptop is not activated anymore.
How to find my "Windows 10 HOME" key to restore my PC as it came from factory ?
I have tried to RESTORE FACTORY SETTINGS but this option does not work, maybe because my activation key is not correct (few other options also are not available because windows 10 is not activated).
Thank you for your help.
ShowKeyPlus will show you your OEM product key, but for restoring your computer back to factory settings, I don't think it will help. Your partitions probably got switched around during an upgrade. There is a way fix this, but I don't have the knowledge to help you with that.
Showkey - Windows 10 blog
Just for your information, Windows 10 activation works differently than it has in the past. Win10 checks your computer hardware ID's and stores that information on Microsoft's activations servers. Once your computer is activated, you can reinstall Windows as many times as you like without using a key. During the installation, when it asks for a key, just hit Skip, don't enter any key, and it will activate automatically once you go on the Internet. You do have to install the same version of Windows as the original (Home or Pro) or it will not activate.
Come to think of it, since your computer came with Windows 10, during installation, Windows will check the key stored in your BIOS and automatically install the correct version (Home or Pro) and not even ask for a key. It will automatically activate once you go on the Internet.
licensing - Reset Windows Activation/Remove license key - Stack Overflow
Afterwards restart the computer, Windows should get the licence from BIOS, just like mine.
Thank you, I will try this.
licensing - Reset Windows Activation/Remove license key - Stack Overflow
Afterwards restart the computer, Windows should get the licence from BIOS, just like mine.
I tried it and it cannot find the key, and even after restart nothing changes.
I did this:
- Open a command prompt as an Administrator.
- Enter slmgr /upk and wait for this to complete. This will uninstall the current product key from Windows and put it into an unlicensed state.
- Enter slmgr /cpky and wait for this to complete. This will remove the product key from the registry if it's still there.
- Enter slmgr /rearm and wait for this to complete. This is to reset the Windows activation timers so the new users will be prompted to activate Windows when they put in the key.
So the only solution must be to download windows 10 home and install it from scratch ? Without using any key it will install my OEM key based on the computer hardware ?
Where can I download a windows 10 home ?
Thank you again to all !
HP PCs - Windows 10 Product Activation | HP® Customer Support
You can download 10 directly from Microsoft. It contains both versions.
USB Flash Drive - Create to Install Windows 10 - Windows 10 blog
I had Home before and when doing a clean install, it find out, that I had OEM Pro licence, maybe you get lucky.
Thanks again for all, I hope that it will work, but we never know with MS....