| Author | Message | ||
     Xdigitalx |
Bought laptop for gf 1.5 years ago... still paying it off.... got the free upgrade to Windows10 updated etc etc... everything was good... idiot gf downloaded something and decided to restore from factory but computer wont restore fully... just hangs at start (no discs only factory partition) OK.. So I finally get restored to Win8 as new but the Windows key wont work!!! HP will help but I have PAY for support?? How do I know they will give me key after I pay?? WTH?!?! So it's a phone call to HP support or buy a Win10 key? I guess 99 more dollars for Windows 10 wouldn't be so bad. (If I get her to pay for it!) but what a freaking PITA. | ||
| Alfau |
Call Microsoft, they will give you a free key. 13 20 58 | ||
| Xdigitalx |
yea... didn't think of that... freaking HP Suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuks!! Thanks | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
HP made the hardware. Microsoft made the software. It's only logical to go after the screwed up part. If your motherboard threw a rod, it would be in HP's ballpark. | ||
| Xdigitalx |
HP also has a shitload of HP support bloatware that is designed to do everything you need to troubleshoot/restore/reinstall to the computer. Which is supposed to help. But I will call the number. Since my Win10 was wiped clean I may have to buy a license for that...but hopefully not. | ||
| Teeps |
As I understand it, from "The Tech Guy" show on the radio. Any computer that was upgraded, and activated, to win 10 before 29 July 2016. Will always be entitled (hate that word) to win 10 for free, ON THAT COMPUTER. So you should be ok. | ||
| Froggy |
Typing while driving, so I'll be brief. The key should be in the motherboard, so you don't normally need to enter it. You can use a program like ShowKeyPlus to extract it should you need to. That said, Win10 stores your motherboard serial number on their servers, upgrade it to 10 and it will know it is the same laptop and activate automatically. No need to buy anything. http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/w indows10 | ||
| Greg_e |
Yes, the key should be burned into the BIOS, but it can also be turned off in there. Been a while since I crawled around in on HP machines, so not exactly sure where this is in the BIOS. | ||
| Xdigitalx |
I restored a couple times back to win8 (didn't update to 8.1) but it still asked fo a new key, and also had a Win10 ISO disk that I tried (and it worked) but that was PRO so it needed a key as well. I am downloading and making an iso disk of Win10 Home now. Hopefully... you guys are right about the motherboard/bios thing. Not how I wanted to spend my Sunday. Ugh. | ||
| Xdigitalx |
I got it running with Win10 Home!! .... When asked to sing into windows account, I signed with same ID I made with my Win10 Tablet.. so I guess I am good to go now. That motherboard/server ID thing must work. Thanks for everyone's help. | ||
| Reepicheep |
So far, Microsoft doesn't appear very aggressive about poking at unlicensed copies of windows, at least not in all cases. They are trying to kill their legacy ecosystem, once they do that I'm sure they will start tightening the screws. Unless they decide to go with the Windows model, and give away the OS and make money on the add on services (which isn't a bad model for them). | ||
| Teeps |
I'm guessing they (MS) will go with subscription service sooner or later. | ||
| Reepicheep |
They already are for office 365, and Onedrive, which is likely to be their cash cow. The question will be to see if they also try and do it for the Windows OS, or if they give that away free so they can make the dominant ecosystem one they control. Their problem in pushing people to pay for Windows is that Linux is pretty good. And if Linux gets a foothold, they could loose everything to open source or to something like Google office. The browser is always free, and to a large degree, your operating system is really just becoming a web browser. It's an interesting business problem for them that could go either way. | ||
| Froggy |
Microsoft has for years offered Windows as a subscription for businesses. While not impossible for them to offer it for consumers, I doubt that will be the case in the near future at least. Windows doesn't make Microsoft much money, their main profit is in everything else they do like Azure, Office, and other enterprise services. As much as Microsoft would love you to keep using Windows, they don't care if you do and are now offering their products and services for nearly every platform. Hell you can even run Bash inside Windows now. | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
Why would a person want to run bash in a windows system? How is it better to use than cmd or powershell? | ||
| Reepicheep |
I *never* run a windows system without first installing the Cygwin suite, complete with Perl and Emacs. Part of that is just because I'm an old school Unix guru, but part of it is because the full unix command line and utility suite is insanely powerful if you invest the time to learn them well. | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
I hear ya. I'm the same way with DOS. I'm still working on my Linux chops. At work, I have a 1G flash drive I use as a lifeboat. It has puppy linux on it and has saved several systems' data here. | ||
| Pwnzor |
Every piece of data I care about is stored on my phone, my network drive at the house, and a solid state drive I keep in my briefcase. Each night, I run a simple batch file which copies all my critical folders to all three places. If a computer takes a dump, I don't even care. Swap it out and move on with my life. | ||
| Court |
>>>If a computer takes a dump, I don't even care. Swap it out and move on with my life. Ditto . . . I have 14 hard dives here and about nothing goes on the machine . . .learned my lesson. There is an array of 3-6TB drives and a pair of 4TB . . along for 7 other 1 and 2 TB units that share everything they know with each other. One of them leaves with me daily . . . I could also care less. | ||
| Robertl |
HP stands hard on their support policy. Contract expires, you pay up front to talk to someone. I used to take escalations from consumers and small businesses at another large computer company. It amazed me how upset, violent, and sue happy people got after a virus or Microsoft update crashed their Windows OS but the hardware worked fine. Honestly, it was the cheaper computers that usually had the most escalations. Starting with Windows Vista, any hardware changes or OS restore would trigger a Windows reactivation. There was a whole list of triggers but don't recall all of them. Usually that could be resolved with an automated call to Microsoft. The Windows key should be on a sticker on the PC? Often the OEM BIOS will have an asset tag or some other data in it and with an OEM Windows disc it will not ask for a key but still requires activation online. This WILL NOT be the same with a NON-OEM Windows disk. Backblaze.com is the only online backup that supports USB drives. $50-60/yr for truly unlimited. |
