Product code for W10

[Patcheen]

i downloaded W10 but its asking for product code last OS was W7

does anyone know of a way to activate W10 without any expense

all advice be greatful

TIA


Pa

[Deleted]

Where, incidentally, have you downloaded W10 from ?

Maybe you should PM one of us with details..............

[banjo]

It's trivial to download W10 from Redmond's server(s) but the product code is not so straightforward. Plenty of sellers on eBay, they pop up and disappear. If you can start off with W7 or 8.1 then an upgrade, whilst not preferable does at least work (or rather it has done until recently.)

e&oe ...

[Deleted]

If you're saying you have W7 anyway, then you should be able to upgrade to W10 still. At least according to this article:

www.zdnet.com/article/heres-how-you-can-still-get-a-free-windows-10-upgrade/

Try that.

[Deleted]

Is W7 already installed, by the way ?

[Deleted]

I really have to go to bed now, but let us know how you get on.

[Patcheen]

Feb 28, 2021 2:08:34 GMT @mrmatt said:

Is W7 already installed, by the way ?

yes but its not startying just loads the splash scree saying toshiba and then goes black screen from there if needed i have a W7 disc if i need to re-install to kick start the W10

[Deleted]

Can you not boot into any environment at all from there ?

I think you maybe need to find out how to access the BIOS settings on your device (varies from manufacturer to manufacturer) when it starts up, and that will usually involve pressing one of the Function keys ; or possibly the Esc key.

From there, you should be given the option to boot from CD / DVD. Try your W7 disc with that.

If I'm understanding you correctly, it seems as though you cannot access any Windows environment at all.

Hopefully, you should be able to reinstall W7 from there, and then follow the steps in post #4. You will need the product key that came with W7 though. Without that, you may well be stuck.

[Deleted]

By the way (and you were probably expecting me to say this anyway), but have you tried posting details of your problem at Bleeping Computer ?

I only say that because they have way more expertise than me, and I'm still a comparative novice.

(I get no kickbacks whatsoever for endorsing them, though !)

[Patcheen]

it was left with me a v long time ago m y W7 is not an original but i no w7 was on the Lappy so would re-installing W7 activate the product code from the original W7? ya i can boot from cd if need to

[Deleted]

If your CD of W7 is not genuine, then you won't be able to activate that.

However (and this is only a thought), if you can reinstall W7 (from the CD / DVD), then you may be able to use a utility such as LicenseCrawler to locate the product key (can't think of any others at the moment) to rediscover the product key from when W7 was pre-installed.

Not sure whether you can download W7 from anywhere, I'll have to look into that.


Here's a download link for LicenseCrawler:

www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/license_crawler.html

(may help if you can put it on USB key).

[Deleted]

This is a download link for W7, but unfortunately you need a product key first, in order to download:

www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows7


You may have more luck with this other link:


www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/microsoft_windows_iso_download_tool.html




(but haven't tested that out for myself yet)


Good luck !

[Deleted]

One more thing:

It looks like the Windows and Office ISO Download Tool (8.46) is probably the way to go - for now, anyway.

I've briefly tried it, but make sure when you select Windows 7 that you select August 2018. I'm guessing that's the one that will have SP1. Obviously, take care to make sure you download the correct version appropriate to your computer (32-Bit or 64-Bit ?), I'm guessing it will be the Home version.

Once you've obtained the ISO image, you'll need a utility such as Rufus (which I've included a download link for). This one is the portable version, so no install required:


github.com/pbatard/rufus/releases/download/v3.13/rufus-3.13p.exe


I'm guessing you'll need a memory stick of at least 4 gb (preferably 8 gb ?) for the actual W7. If you've got another memory stick, you can use that for Rufus, and say LicenseCrawler, utilities like that (that's my suggestion anyway).

I'm going to be offline now for a few hours, so bye for now !

[Deleted]

Another shot in the dark, but could be relevant and worth pursuing ?

www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/start-the-windows-7-recovery-environment/

or:

www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/windows-7-recovery-environment-command-prompt/


Some more tutorials for W7 here:

www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/199688/list-of-windows-7-tutorials-at-bleepingcomputercom/

[banjo]

Since the lappy had W7 on originally, if you can get a Toshiba W7 recovery disc from eBay -and- it matches the original (eg Home or Pro), then likely it will install and you probably won't even need a product key at all Pat. Then you should be able to update to W10 following Matt's links, (provided there are no hardware gotchas.)

e&oe ...