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I have a laptop that came with Windows 7 originally. It was then (1) upgraded to Windows 10 during the period in which Windows 10 was free and (2) and clean-installed with Ubuntu. As such my system at the moment only has Ubuntu installed.

During (1), there was no step to enter the Windows 10 CD key and between (1) and (2), I created a Macrium Reflect backup of my Windows partition. That backup is now misplaced.

I'm contemplating reinstalling Windows 10 on this laptop using an unmodified ISO. Will I be prompted for a CD key this time? Is there a chance that the Win 10 copy in (1) stored a copy of its credentials somewhere so that the system will remember those when I reinstall Windows?

yurnero
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1 Answers1

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If your laptop came with a Windows 7 CoA sticker, you may need to enter the key printed on that for proper activation.

If the key is embedded in your BIOS, which AFAIK is the case for UEFI machines, then you can use "Skip this step" for entering the key, and Windows should activate automatically on connecting to the internet.

pulsejet
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