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I have a couple family members with busted computers. Windows 10's "reset this PC" from recovery environment was a no go. I pulled out a windows 10 USB i made many moons ago with the media creation tool and reinstalled windows 10 using it. I then used nirsoft's Produkey to recover the product key because I knew the manufacturer has it embedded on the machine itself.
It retrieved this key for me, but to my surprise it also returned another key which is the key for my copy of Windows 10!!! This is not okay with me, I do not want my key floating around in the world.
How can I make a clean installer for Windows 10 that doesn't carry my product key embedded in itself?
Magnus Jegeren Búrzgúl
Posted 2017-11-02T03:26:24.763
Reputation: 1
Wouldn't Win10 automatically re-recognize the key? In my experience, it does. Also, although I've never seen (a.k.a. bothered to find out) this "embedded installation key", I'd say that it was added when you created your installation medium - used as a kind of watermark, perhaps. – flolilo – 2017-11-02T03:36:35.163
I thought so to, but it did not recognize any keys for activating Windows and I was actually worried I may have lost the key forever. I only just found out I could have removed the drive and recovered the key by plugging it into my main machine and then using produkey. Asus wanted to charge me 50 dollars for their recovery USB which back in the day that type of media came with all machines by default. Luckily the key was embedded on the machine itself. – Magnus Jegeren Búrzgúl – 2017-11-02T03:52:04.000
Is there a file on your USB drive in the
Sourcesdirectory namedPID.txtwith your key in it? If so, just record the key then delete the file. – I say Reinstate Monica – 2017-11-02T04:05:12.360@TwistyImpersonator No there was not, but like I said I created the drive a long long time ago. I just decided to make a new one, reformatted the flash drive and made both a bootable usb drive and created an .iso image. Now present in both is a file called
product.iniin theSourcesdirectory.In this file is a giant list of Serial numbers with labels such as
professionalworkstationn=keyeducation=keyserverweb=keyis just a small handful and searching in the list I come across an entryprofessional=mykeythatirecognize– Magnus Jegeren Búrzgúl – 2017-11-02T04:55:55.3031Well you didn’t need to look up the product key because Windows 10 automatically pulls that information when installed. Additionally are you sure you are not freaking out over the generic license that EVERYONE has if they upgraded to Windows 10 from a previous installation? – Ramhound – 2017-11-02T06:50:06.387
That's the thing though, after I formatted the C drive and installed Windows 10 with my USB drive Windows 10 did not automatically pull that information from where it is embedded in the TPM of the machine. If I go to settings it still says "Please enter your product key to activate windows" which is why I had to look it up. And yes the key that is my key was assigned to me upon upgrading from Windows 7, I'm not sure how big of a security risk that is to have it possibly accessible to other people. – Magnus Jegeren Búrzgúl – 2017-11-02T09:27:25.960
If Microsoft themselves provide your key to you/everyone, then I wouldn't bother why that is. If the key was on some sort of piracy blacklist, you would have noticed (i.e. your license wouldn't work any more). Did you use the Media Creation Tool this time, too? I'd try dowbliading the ISO via the Web and then installing it on your USB drive via Rufus. – flolilo – 2017-11-02T10:22:55.263
Google you key. Is it the generic install key? – I say Reinstate Monica – 2017-11-02T11:43:07.927
"That's the thing though, after I formatted the C drive and installed Windows 10 with my USB drive Windows 10 did not automatically pull that information from where it is embedded in the TPM of the machine." - This isn't true. You also didn't answer my question. Are you 100% positive the key you are worried about is a unique key and not the same generic key everyone else is using? "If I go to settings it still says "Please enter your product key to activate windows" which is why I had to look it up." - All this tells me you installed the wrong version of Windows 10. – Ramhound – 2017-11-02T12:02:19.297
Did the machine come with Windows 10 Home or Windows 10 Professional and what version did you install?
VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66Tis the generic Windows 10 Professional key. Produkey is also known to give bogus results.YTMG3-N6DKC-DKB77-7M9GH-8HVX7is the Windows 10 Home generic key. Edit your question and provide the results ofwinver– Ramhound – 2017-11-02T12:04:32.807Oh Wow, yep I'm tripping over that windows 10 professional key you listed there, that is my key. Ok guess I don't need to worry anymore. And yeah I just realized that the installer I created with my media creation tool is windows 10 pro, these 2 laptops I have came with windows 10 home, so that explains why Windows isn't automatically retrieving the key embedded on the machine.
How come every time I bust my OS and reinstall Windows I'm able to use that generic key successfully every time? Is it because my microsoft account is Windows 10 verified? – Magnus Jegeren Búrzgúl – 2017-11-03T02:52:41.320
How can I create a Windows 10 home installer? I have the media creation tool but it doesn't give me a choice for the edition of windows 10 I want to create a usb drive for. The only working Windows 10 computer I have is my main one which uses professional edition. – Magnus Jegeren Búrzgúl – 2017-11-03T23:20:51.297