Win 10 key for $10?

[Carpet_pissr]

A company I have been consulting for gave me a laptop recently, but it still has the previous owner's profile, as well as an admin profile. As such, I can't install anything without some kind of admin password.

When I asked their IT guy about a pw, he didn't want to give one to me, but said I could get my own Win 10 license for it (key) for $10. Anyone ever do that, or knows how it works?

I really just want to be able to install stuff, disable the McAfee crap that is crippling its performance, and maybe replace the slow as molasses hard drive. It's got a 1TB 5400 drive (SLOW as hell), coupled with a 32GB SSD, but it is slooooowwwwwww. I would much rather have just one, 512, or even 256 SSD.

[Smoove_B]

I can get a "Work at Home" key for Win10 from my employer for $9.95, so perhaps that's what they're referencing?

Also, I put an SSD into my gaming laptop a few years ago and it made a ridiculous difference in speed. So much so that when I had my desktop computer built last year, I didn't even hesitate to give it an SSD for the O/S. Would recommend.

[LordMortis]

SSD and Windows 10 is huge. It's the single biggest performance driver IMO, with the crappy thing being SSD seem to be like great big thumb drives, a whole let less reliable than that spinning platters and when they have problem >pfft< there's no recovery.

That said a "key" (MAK?) for Windows 10 for $10 that lets you wipe a machine and rebuild it? Not that I've heard of but... *shrug*

Also why can't he just change admin password unless its domain connected and if it's domain connected why can't he remove it from the domain and then change the password?

OtOH, a laptop likely has a manufacturer for which you may be able to get an OEM image from. Most contemporary laptops will let you go to the OEM website and see if you can get a free or paid for manufacturer OEM release of the OS.

[gameoverman]

I've heard of it, haven't used one. From what I understand it's a grey market thing, those are real keys honored by Microsoft. So you are getting the real thing. It's just that they are keys sold around the world, whereas Microsoft would prefer you bought the keys in your own market.

[LawBeefaroni]

I've heard of it, haven't used one. From what I understand it's a grey market thing, those are real keys honored by Microsoft. So you are getting the real thing. It's just that they are keys sold around the world, whereas Microsoft would prefer you bought the keys in your own market.

The Work at Home keys are legit if you get it from an authorized employer. From what I remember, participating employers pay a higher per user license fee to offer it.

[Biyobi]

Also why can't he just change admin password unless its domain connected and if it's domain connected why can't he remove it from the domain and then change the password?

I'd pursue this avenue if the company is local to you.

[LordMortis]

I've heard of it, haven't used one. From what I understand it's a grey market thing, those are real keys honored by Microsoft. So you are getting the real thing. It's just that they are keys sold around the world, whereas Microsoft would prefer you bought the keys in your own market.

The Work at Home keys are legit if you get it from an authorized employer. From what I remember, participating employers pay a higher per user license fee to offer it.

I've never heard of such a thing for an OS. For office, yeah, it's called HUP. That might be my ignorance though.

Also note, if you use Windows 10 and somehow he can get an MAK for Enterprise, the versions don't update, so for instance, if he gets you an MAK for Windows 1607, it won't patch to version 1709 (I think that the current version) without licensing through Software Assurance.

[Carpet_pissr]

FWIW, this is a startup, about 9 employees currently, so I doubt it's the work at home deal. Maybe he was referencing the OEM thing though. It's a Dell. Another FWIW, they are located about 2 hours from my house (someone asked if they were local).

[LordMortis]

FWIW, this is a startup, about 9 employees currently, so I doubt it's the work at home deal. Maybe he was referencing the OEM thing though. It's a Dell. Another FWIW, they are located about 2 hours from my house (someone asked if they were local).

http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter ... t/19974699

As long as the machine shipped with Windows 10 you can recover it. Can you tell what version of Windows 10 you are running?

<Windows> E to bring up windows explorer
Right Click on "This PC"
Properties

If you see DELL Windows 10 Home or DELL Windows 10 Pro, you should be able to get a new OEM image. (DELL is important there. If you try to use DELL image and them machine was not configured for DELL OEM licensing, then you're going to find yourself needing buy a license) Your service tag should lead you to the original OEM OS.

[Anonymous Bosch]

You may be able to use the "Sticky Keys" hack to simply remove or replace the admin password.

Try this: Reset Windows 10 Password Without Knowing The Current Password

[Carpet_pissr]

You may be able to use the "Sticky Keys" hack to simply remove or replace the admin password.

Try this: Reset Windows 10 Password Without Knowing The Current Password

OK, I am trying this, hope it's safe! (seems a little shady considering they are suggesting you can use it to hack into someone's account!)

[Anonymous Bosch]

You may be able to use the "Sticky Keys" hack to simply remove or replace the admin password.

Try this: Reset Windows 10 Password Without Knowing The Current Password

OK, I am trying this, hope it's safe! (seems a little shady considering they are suggesting you can use it to hack into someone's account!)

You're basically just tricking Windows into allowing you to run the Command Prompt when first logging in by swapping the "Sticky Keys" program with the Command Prompt (cmd.exe). As long as you don't forget to change them back again afterwards, you should be fine.

[Carpet_pissr]

OK, thanks. Was referring to the shady software, but I think I will try Sticky Keys hack first.

[Carpet_pissr]

Man, this is driving me crazy. Already spent way too much time on this damned laptop.

So new info: I don't have a license key, and I don't know the admin password (which precludes my using the sticky keys method above)

Got on chat with MS for an hour, they said to make a bootable Win 10 ISO off their site, using my Win 10 licensed desktop. So I did that, and seemed to go well, but now when I boot up, I guess it's using the drivers from my desktop! Which obviously don't work on laptop.

I wonder if deep down somewhere inside this Dell, they have locked away the original drivers?

I guess next step is to look up network driver for this laptop from Dell site, then dl to usb? Now I'm wondering all the other potential hardware probs this will cause. Audio driver, video, surely not just the network driver was copied from desktop?

Now I am "resetting" PC. let's see if this gets me back. Any advice or suggestions, I am listening!

One small sidenote: I fully plan to replace the 1TB drive in this with an SSD, because it boots up crazy slow. The strange thing is that I am seeing very contradictory info about the actual drives in this. In some settings (in Win 10), it shows just a single, 5400RPM, 1TB drive. In BIOS, there is a section checked showing RAID 0 with multiple drives, including a small SSD! WTH.

I should have just bought one of those cheap OEM versions of Windows 10 and be done with it. Already not worth my time after an hour on chat with MS.

[LordMortis]

I wonder if deep down somewhere inside this Dell, they have locked away the original drivers?

If the machine shipped with Windows 10 and they kept the original image, it does but you can't get at them to reset the machine to the factory image without an administrative password. That's when you want the OEM ISO from Dell. That's why I said verify you are running the Dell OEM version of Windows and then get an image from Dell.

I guess next step is to look up network driver for this laptop from Dell site, then dl to usb? Now I'm wondering all the other potential hardware probs this will cause. Audio driver, video, surely not just the network driver was copied from desktop?

Dell should have a fairly accurate list of drivers based on the "service tag" on the bottom of your laptop. It will be six or seven alphanumberic characters. You should be able to load them no matter what OS the original shipped with.

Now I am "resetting" PC. let's see if this gets me back. Any advice or suggestions, I am listening!

I hope you can without the admin password. Luck to you!

[Carpet_pissr]

Thanks, LM.

Everything is good now, finally. I had to manually move over all the Dell drivers via USB from my laptop, but ok in the end.

[Punisher]

If this PC shipped with Win 10 you should be able to drop a new drive in and download the ISO from MS. You just need to download the exact ISO (IE: Win 10 Pro 64 bit for example). The Win 10 key is generally stored in BIOS now.
I just did this for my nieces PC. Hard drive failed and they never made a boot/recovery disc, so I downloaded the ISO from MS and it worked. It also picked up 90% of the drivers automatically. (I did end up updating a few from ASUS's site).