How do i automatically bypass the BIOS OEM Key and install Windows 10 Pro?

[LauRoman]

You can skip the story and go to the bold part of the post for my problem.

 

So, i have a laptop that came preinstalled with Windows 8 (Homely). I would have probably upgraded to pro myself, but i still had 4 unused Windows 7 Pro keys so i put one of those on it and used it for 3 years like that. April-ish 2016 i upgraded to Windows 10 and apart from some inherited group policy settings from Windows 7 and some translation inconsistencies i haven't found big problems with it. It sat seldomly used by a family member for 3 months.

 

A couple of days ago i repossessed the machine and i noticed a bug that, after a boot the desktop icons would only show up after a right click, probably caused by some software that the person used at one time. I figured that it was not important and i would fix the problem when i got to it.

 

I went to repartition the machine using partitioning software and found that none of the 2 programs i used would do it. Note that i had the bios set to legacy mode before i installed windows 7 or upgraded to 10. I figured that it was due to some bootloader issue as it would skip calling out the partitioning program. I bet that it might have been caused by some bootloader/filesystem faults that were probably dued to cloning i did to the ssd i Windows on, because along the life of the device i had a 60 GB ssd on it, then a 240 GB and finally a 120 GB. Though i don't remember ever having problems repartitioning the disk inbetween any of those clonings on Windows 7, but that's neither here nor there.

 

So i went to install Windows 10 on that machine from scratch. It went quick and, i thought, painless. When i went to see if it was activated, because it was my first reinstall after the initial free upgrade i din in the spring, i found out i had the Home edition, but i was sure the machine had a Pro license. I quickly deduced it was because of the embedded BIOS OEM Key the machine had for Windows 8 (non Pro). I went to change the key (which i had saved beforehand) in the activation menu and it did not work. I found two solutions pretty fast. Either i had to reinstall 7 Pro and redo the upgrade, or i had to use an intermediary W10 default key and then use my own. Both worked with almost no issues, because i tested them. But for future reference, if i ever do it again on that machine (considering my average, probably not in the next 4 years) is there a way to force the Windows installation process to use my Pro Key?

 

I tried a suggestion from superuser.com to have a PID.txt file, but it did not read that. Maybe i formatted it wrong or it was a different file i needed to have. There used to be software, in the Vista/7 era that allowed one to edit the .WIM files from WIndows ISOs to remove or add versions from the media, to make it slimmer or add more options. I don't know of such software for Windows 10 and, so far, i haven't been able to force the setup to use the Pro Key and bypass the BIOS one. Can someone enlighten me on how to do that?

 

I have at least one other issue with Windows 10 inconsistency. Windows 10 has poor or incomplete translations for my language, when compared to 7. For example Program Files (x86) is translated to romanian (the language i chose on install) just fine, but the 64 bit one is just Program Files, in english. They were both translated fine in 7. There are a few others but you get the crux of it. That may be due to it being a lower tier language now compared to then, or it may be that all translations are not as good as they were, or that Windows 10 does not allow for folders such as Program Files to be translated (this last thing i honestly doubt). That's actually not the worst of it though. There are bigger translation transgressions if you upgrade from different languages of Windows 7 to Windows 10. So, when upgrading from Windows 7 romanian (as an example, because it's the one i use most) to Windows 10 (romanian) most (system) folders are translated to romanian, but if you upgrade from windows 7 english to windows 10 romanian there are even more folders not being translated, such Control Panel. And there is no way to fix it in post.

[PGHammer]

10 minutes ago, LauRoman said:

You can skip the story and go to the bold part of the post for my problem.

 

So, i have a laptop that came preinstalled with Windows 8 (Homely). I would have probably upgraded to pro myself, but i still had 4 unused Windows 7 Pro keys so i put one of those on it and used it for 3 years like that. April-ish 2016 i upgraded to Windows 10 and apart from some inherited group policy settings from Windows 7 and some translation inconsistencies i haven't found big problems with it. It sat seldomly used by a family member for 3 months.

 

A couple of days ago i repossessed the machine and i noticed a bug that, after a boot the desktop icons would only show up after a right click, probably caused by some software that the person used at one time. I figured that it was not important and i would fix the problem when i got to it.

 

I went to repartition the machine using partitioning software and found that none of the 2 programs i used would do it. Note that i had the bios set to legacy mode before i installed windows 7 or upgraded to 10. I figured that it was due to some bootloader issue as it would skip calling out the partitioning program. I bet that it might have been caused by some bootloader/filesystem faults that were probably dued to cloning i did to the ssd i Windows on, because along the life of the device i had a 60 GB ssd on it, then a 240 GB and finally a 120 GB. Though i don't remember ever having problems repartitioning the disk inbetween any of those clonings on Windows 7, but that's neither here nor there.

 

So i went to install Windows 10 on that machine from scratch. It went quick and, i thought, painless. When i went to see if it was activated, because it was my first reinstall after the initial free upgrade i din in the spring, i found out i had the Home edition, but i was sure the machine had a Pro license. I quickly deduced it was because of the embedded BIOS OEM Key the machine had for Windows 8 (non Pro). I went to change the key (which i had saved beforehand) in the activation menu and it did not work. I found two solutions pretty fast. Either i had to reinstall 7 Pro and redo the upgrade, or i had to use an intermediary W10 default key and then use my own. Both worked with almost no issues, because i tested them. But for future reference, if i ever do it again on that machine (considering my average, probably not in the next 4 years) is there a way to force the Windows installation process to use my Pro Key?

 

I tried a suggestion from superuser.com to have a PID.txt file, but it did not read that. Maybe i formatted it wrong or it was a different file i needed to have. There used to be software, in the Vista/7 era that allowed one to edit the .WIM files from WIndows ISOs to remove or add versions from the media, to make it slimmer or add more options. I don't know of such software for Windows 10 and, so far, i haven't been able to force the setup to use the Pro Key and bypass the BIOS one. Can someone enlighten me on how to do that?

 

I have at least one other issue with Windows 10 inconsistency. Windows 10 has poor or incomplete translations for my language, when compared to 7. For example Program Files (x86) is translated to romanian (the language i chose on install) just fine, but the 64 bit one is just Program Files, in english. They were both translated fine in 7. There are a few others but you get the crux of it. That may be due to it being a lower tier language now compared to then, or it may be that all translations are not as good as they were, or that Windows 10 does not allow for folders such as Program Files to be translated (this last thing i honestly doubt). That's actually not the worst of it though. There are bigger translation transgressions if you upgrade from different languages of Windows 7 to Windows 10. So, when upgrading from Windows 7 romanian (as an example, because it's the one i use most) to Windows 10 (romanian) most (system) folders are translated to romanian, but if you upgrade from windows 7 english to windows 10 romanian there are even more folders not being translated, such Control Panel. And there is no way to fix it in post.

The translation problem could well be due to localization differences, and difference in tier since then is almost certainly a factor.  (It's not unique to Romania, either - certain languages in the Russian-localized versions of Windows 10 get the short end as well.)

[LauRoman]

2 minutes ago, PGHammer said:

The translation problem could well be due to localization differences, and difference in tier since then is almost certainly a factor.  (It's not unique to Romania, either - certain languages in the Russian-localized versions of Windows 10 get the short end as well.)

That may be true, but it's kinda sad that things were better in 7 and Vista. What's even sadder is that, even though it had a kludgy way of doing it, and in all metrics it pales compared to Vista/7 (because it had no great translation backend) XP had better translations compared to 10, if you go by visible results.

 

Thanks for the answer, but my bigger issue than translation is being able to force the BIOS key bypass.

[+Gary7 Subscriber²]

3 minutes ago, LauRoman said:

That may be true, but it's kinda sad that things were better in 7 and Vista. What's even sadder is that, even though it had a kludgy way of doing it, and in all metrics it pales compared to Vista/7 (because it had no great translation backend) XP had better translations compared to 10, if you go by visible results.

 

Thanks for the answer, but my bigger issue than translation is being able to force the BIOS key bypass.

Well one had to pay for Windows 7 and Vista.

[LauRoman]

13 minutes ago, Gary7 said:

Well one had to pay for Windows 7 and Vista.

Are you implying that if i buy Windows 10 starting July 30th 2016 i get a better translation on the disc or as any kind of download? You obviously aren't, so that's not an excuse, since the translation backend framework hasn't really changed since Vista.

[Nashy]

Ring Microsoft.  If they don't activate it, put your foot down, they will soon jump on your PC and activate it.

[+Gary7 Subscriber²]

2 minutes ago, LauRoman said:

Are you implying that if i buy Windows 10 starting July 30th 2016 i get a better translation on the disc or as any kind of download? You obviously aren't, so that's not an excuse, since the translation backend framework hasn't really changed since Vista.

I am implying that if You did get it on or Before July 30, 2016 you could have done a clean install and activated your Windows 10 using a Windows outlook email address without a key.

[FunkyMike]

49 minutes ago, LauRoman said:

But for future reference, if i ever do it again on that machine (considering my average, probably not in the next 4 years) is there a way to force the Windows installation process to use my Pro Key?

 

You get to pick if you want Home or Pro during install. Or doesn't it let you pick which version you want to install?

[+Gary7 Subscriber²]

If you have a 7 pro the upgrade path is to 10 Pro.

[Noir Angel]

Get installation media that *only* has pro, or extract the contents of your ISO to the drive, and use wintoolkit to remove the home image manually. My Linx 7 has a key embedded in the BIOS and using a pro only Windows 10 installation disc I was able to upgrade it to W10 pro rather than home.

[LauRoman]

3 hours ago, Gary7 said:

I am implying that if You did get it on or Before July 30, 2016 you could have done a clean install and activated your Windows 10 using a Windows outlook email address without a key.

Unfortunately, using the outlook email, has no impact on which version (Hoem or Pro) it gets activated to. If it read the bios oem key, which is 8 home, it activates to 10 home, regardless if i activated 10 pro after i upgraded from 7 pro.

 

3 hours ago, FunkyMike said:

You get to pick if you want Home or Pro during install. Or doesn't it let you pick which version you want to install?

No option shows up during install. Since i know of no way to force it to do pro (even if i had previously activated pro on it), it automagically reads the bios oem key for 8 home, and it activates to 10 home.

3 hours ago, Gary7 said:

If you have a 7 pro the upgrade path is to 10 Pro.

Your reply is, yet again, useless and completely misses the point of my issue, as were the previous two. I do not care about the upgrade path. I care about doing a clean install of 10 pro (a version i activated in april 2016) during the install of the os. SInce the bios of my laptop has a bios oem key for windows 8 home, the machine activates to 10 home. I have to do an activation dance to have 10 pro on it, since inserting my 10 pro key in the activation window of windows 10 home does not work.

 

It goes something like this:

 

option 1: Install windows 7 pro -> upgrade to windows 10 pro

option 2: Install windows 10 -> it activates to 10 home without my input -> serial key for 10 pro does not work -> using default serial key for windows 10 (VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T) -> it upgrades to pro -> use my 10 pro serial key -> it works

 

You do not seem to grasp that i want o jump over the those steps during install.

3 hours ago, Javik said:

Get installation media that *only* has pro, or extract the contents of your ISO to the drive, and use wintoolkit to remove the home image manually. My Linx 7 has a key embedded in the BIOS and using a pro only Windows 10 installation disc I was able to upgrade it to W10 pro rather than home.

I remember Win toolkit, and not wanting to use it because it was kludgy compared to other options available for windows 7 or xp, but i might give it a try. I hope that it works with WIndows 10 images.

[+Gary7 Subscriber²]

Just now, LauRoman said:

Unfortunately, using the outlook email, has no impact on which version (Hoem or Pro) it gets activated to. If it read the bios oem key, which is 8 home, it activates to 10 home, regardless if i activated 10 pro after i upgraded from 7 pro.

 

I understand that but at least it would activate, Windows 8 did not qualify only 8.1

[FunkyMike]

5 minutes ago, LauRoman said:

No option shows up during install. Since i know of no way to force it to do pro (even if i had previously activated pro on it), it automagically reads the bios oem key for 8 home, and it activates to 10 home.

Your reply is, yet again, useless and completely misses the point of my issue, as were the previous two. I do not care about the upgrade path. I care about doing a clean install of 10 pro (a version i activated in april 2016) during the install of the os. SInce the bios of my laptop has a bios oem key for windows 8 home, the machine activates to 10 home. I have to do an activation dance to have 10 pro on it, since inserting my 10 pro key in the activation window of windows 10 home does not work.

 

I would open the MS support app via Win 10 and ask them if they can deactivate Windows 10 home for your HWID/Account. Might be worth a shot.

[Noir Angel]

7 hours ago, LauRoman said:

I remember Win toolkit, and not wanting to use it because it was kludgy compared to other options available for windows 7 or xp, but i might give it a try. I hope that it works with WIndows 10 images.

Removing the Home image should be relatively quick and simple. It does work with W10 images, I use it fairly frequently.

[LauRoman]

On 09.08.2016 at 0:55 AM, Gary7 said:

I am implying that if You did get it on or Before July 30, 2016 you could have done a clean install and activated your Windows 10 using a Windows outlook email address without a key.

 

On 09.08.2016 at 1:00 AM, Gary7 said:

If you have a 7 pro the upgrade path is to 10 Pro.

 

On 09.08.2016 at 5:20 AM, Gary7 said:

I understand that but at least it would activate, Windows 8 did not qualify only 8.1

What are you going on about? I think i made it pretty clear in my first post that i want to activate 10 pro easier. The laptop in order, these operating systems

Windows 8 OEM -> Windows 7 PRO (Retail) -> Windows 10 PRO.

Because of the OEM key inside the BIOS (which is for 8 non pro). Windows 10 automactically activates to Home. IT DOESN'T MATTER THAT I HAD PRO ON THAT MACHINE, or that a specific 10 pro entitlement is tied to that machine or my microsoft account, IT STILL ACTIVATES TO HOME. If i want pro i have to do a whole activation dance or have to reinstall 7 pro and then uppgrade again. For future reference, and for other people that are now or in the future on the same boat, i would like to make the process shorter. and have it upgrade to Pro upon OS install since i have a friggin free license of 10 pro for that machine.

 

On 09.08.2016 at 5:24 AM, FunkyMike said:

I would open the MS support app via Win 10 and ask them if they can deactivate Windows 10 home for your HWID/Account. Might be worth a shot.

Considering that there still are people that have successful activations, at this point it might just reactivate windows 10 home again. I might wait untill they disable free upgrades for accessibility users, to be safer.

[FunkyMike]

8 minutes ago, LauRoman said:

 

Considering that there still are people that have successful activations, at this point it might just reactivate windows 10 home again. I might wait untill they disable free upgrades for accessibility users, to be safer.

You could try to disable the SLP marker in the UEFI. Depending on which laptop you have there might be a tool that allows you to trigger the certificate information on and off.

 

This certainly exists for BIOS but the functional of switching it on and off might also exist for UEFI. I have only briefly touched upon this subject for UEFI laptops during my travels and I believe it is possible.

 

It is just a trigger in the SLIC table which turns this info on or off. There are OEM tools available for this.

 

Check MDL for such tools. You might have to search a bit.

 

I will try to enquire about it a bit and will let you know if I get some info.

 

What is your model?

[FunkyMike]

So you have a few options:

 

Forcing the edition selection by putting a PID.TXT or ei.cfg into the installation. Very easy to do.

 

Disabling the SLP marker in the UEFI. If you have your model number then you can search MDL for such a tool but this is generally not advisable if you can cope with the first method.

 

Calling MS and removing the Home Edition when free upgrades end. (Don't hold your breath .. I have a feeling they are not bothered at all about people still activating it via old key / win 8 SLP markers.

 

 

[r0wnin]

You should have the option to delete the current key from your BIOS.

[LauRoman]

On 11.08.2016 at 9:53 PM, r0wnin said:

You should have the option to delete the current key from your BIOS.

Where?

[FunkyMike]

9 minutes ago, LauRoman said:

Where?

Check my post.