More on Win 10 digital activation

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Rickles

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#284083 30-Mar-2021 12:07

I have just resurrected an old laptop gifted to me ... came with no hard drive.

I installed new drive, partitioned and formatted it etc etc, then down-loaded latest version of Win 10 onto USB drive.

Everything works fine, so went to Activate using Product Code from another dead & disposed of machine ... however I found that it was already "activated with digital licence".

I have never obtained any dodgy Product Codes etc for Win 10, and all media used was squeaky clean, so where did this one come from? I gather digital activation takes place when one signs in to Microsoft account during the Win 10 install, which I did.

I've checked the 'new' Product Code against all the others I have used or have on hand, and it does not match any of them!

Mystery? 🙃

coffeebaron

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#2684026 30-Mar-2021 12:09

If it was a branded laptop, it probably already had an OEM license that would have automatically activated.

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muppet

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#2684027 30-Mar-2021 12:11

coffeebaron:

If it was a branded laptop, it probably already had an OEM license that would have automatically activated.

To expand on this a bit more in simple terms (because this has confused me before) the activation key/license is stored in the EUFI area of the laptop and Windows can check this upon install and activate itself. So the laptop hardware can literally say to windows "I'm licensed"

evilonenz

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#2684029 30-Mar-2021 12:13

As above, the Windows licensing details are stored in ACPI, which UEFI firmware can access, which is how Windows will automatically activate when reinstalled.

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mentalinc

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#2684030 30-Mar-2021 12:13

Digital activation uses things like Motherboard to determine if the device is the same... changing hard drives won't impact entitlement of a digital product key.

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Rickles

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#2684032 30-Mar-2021 12:23

Thanks all, I did not know about the BIOS/UEFI storing original Code .... neat idea though 😊.

Ironically I had to disable UEFI and return to Legacy BIOS to enable an alternate boot drive, but this obviously didn't affect matters.

P.S. I see now that the BIOS/UEFI access the ACPI which holds the Prod Code.

dimsim

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#2684049 30-Mar-2021 13:20

I know initially during the Win7/8 free upgrade period that the digital license was tied to the machine by things like the system board /cpu/id and mac address etc so no actual licence was required. If you needed to swap out a system board or other major components you could register the digital license with your MS account and recover it after changing out major system components.

Oblivian

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#2684053 30-Mar-2021 13:39

dimsim:

I know initially during the Win7/8 free upgrade period that the digital license was tied to the machine by things like the system board /cpu/id and mac address etc so no actual licence was required. If you needed to swap out a system board or other major components you could register the digital license with your MS account and recover it after changing out major system components.

Yep. The difference appears to be early editions let you put off entering key/activation from get go and were happy to remain like that. And once it hit online it could recover it based on the machine SID generated during the initial deployments with said digital upgraded licence.

As that phase become to an end, the switch has been thrown since about 1607/1709 that you need to process 'activation' and store the result against an online account if you hope to re-arm it during reinstall. Along with a new 'get me online first' OOBE phase introduced to the setup process.

If a device has a blue or holo Windows logo sticker. Chances are it's embedded. (this helps out Most OEMs during the factory recovery media phase that could jump straight to W10 for reinstall). Then you had eligible upgraded units with auto Digital Activation. Now you link them to an acct and reference it.

Windows is activated with a digital license
This means that your Microsoft account is not linked to your digital license.
Follow instructions for Add an account.
Windows is activated with a digital license linked to your Microsoft account
This means that your Microsoft account is already linked to your digital license.
No further action is required.
You are ready to use the activation troubleshooter.