how can i check win10 to see if i have a geniue product key???
does win10 save it somewhere??
or do i need to have saved it before i installed win10??
Win10 is a "preview" -- so, the product keys are freely available. However, they have changed with build 10158. If you do a forum search, you will find threads that post the generic product keys.
@Mark Phelps
I think the op upgrade from windows 7 or 8.1 and wants to be able to keep 10 activated after getting the rtm on the July 29th & leaving the insider program.
showkey will show you your key, Showkey. I did an upgrade from Windows 7, my windows 10 key shows as Windows 10 Pre-release Professional Retail. Pre-release being the operative words. It's not much good for anything other than maybe clean installing 10 Preview. I still have the watermark and activation will expire at the end of the trial period. My current 10162 key is not a generic key, not as far as I can tell anyway. It doesn't match any of the ones I've seen posted.
i cant beleive i need to dl sometihng to check...
should be on here somewhere...
it's ok, maybe keeping in insider is easeir.. -- build 10158, do you absolutely have to sign in to a microsoft account - Windows 10 blog
Original Edition: Win Next Starter Retailshowkey will show you your key,
OEM Key: Windows 7 OEM marker present in firmware
not sure what this means
Win Next Starter Retail is a Home preview test key used to install and activate with Insider MSA.Original Edition: Win Next Starter Retail
OEM Key: Windows 7 OEM marker present in firmware
not sure what this means
Windows 7 OEM marker means that PC was factory built for Windows 7.
that never answers my original question, like is this activated if i sign into a local account...
showkey will show you your Windows 10 key? It will be the one listed as Installed Key: If you did the free upgrade you don't need it anyway. It will be a generic key. On a clean install on that PC just press skip when prompted for the key. It will activate based on the hardware ID that was stored when you first activated Windows 10. This only works though if you did the upgrade and verified that Windows 10 was activated.
how do i know if this is activated though..... it doesnt say anywhere
and do i absolutely have to do a clean install (which deletes all my software and files) to not have to sign into win10?
