Windows 8 Product Key missing from bios

Question

This is on an XPS 8700 purchased a few years ago.  It came with Windows 8, followed by the free upgrade to Windows 10. Windows 10 recently stopped working. Typical solutions failed. I had an iso backup, and installed that. Everything is working as it should but I have a watermark floating above everything on my screen saying 'activate windows', but windows activation fails. According to Microsoft, I need the Windows-8 key in order for Windows 10 to be activated. To retrieve the Windows-8 key, I used this command  wmic path SoftwareLicensingService get OA3xOriginalProductKey in 'powershell (Admin)', (so at a command prompt).  It returned with 'OA3xOriginalProductKey'. and that's it. No product key was listed. So it appears as if the windows 8 product key that was 'injected' into the motherboard is not there. The motherboard is the original. I made no hardware changes immediately prior to this problem occurring.  Is there a way to get the product key from Dell, without paying $100 just for the privilege of talking with them?

Vic384 · Accepted Answer

If the Windows 8 key is in the BIOS/UEFI you could try this: https://salamspotcom.blogspot.com/2018/03/3-ways-to-extract-windows-8-10-product.html

Vic384 · Answer

Since you had upgraded to Windows 10, Windows should have been activated with a digital license linked to your Microsoft account. See this: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12440/windows-10-activate

You can also go to All Settings / Update & Security / Activation to get more information about activation.

Brett2424 · Answer

Yes it should have. But it didn't. According to Microsoft, the activation of Windows 10 is dependent on the Windows-8 key stored on the motherboard. Since there is no Windows-8 key on the motherboard, Windows 10 will not activate.

Thanks for the link, and other information, but I've been trying to find the solution to this for a couple days now, and I had already been to that (useless-to-me) web web page, and I'm very (much too) familiar with the activation screen.

I could find nothing anywhere about my specific situation.

Brett2424 · Answer

Yes. I tried ProduKey. It showed no Windows-8 key. It did show a Windows-10 key, but I was told by a Microsoft representative that it was a generic key that cannot be used to activate the product.

Vic384 · Answer

Have you tried to retrieve the OEM key with software like the program ShowKeyPlus? Or NirSoft's ProduKey?

Brett2424 · Answer

Vic384, you did it. Thank you. I used ShowKeyPlus, and that revealed the original key. Then I was able to activate Windows 10. The annoying watermark is gone. Thank you again. Brett

Vic384 · Answer

Glad I could help.

XPS Desktops

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