i had to restore my laptop to factory defaults.
But I forgot to note down the windows profesional product key before starting the restore to default process. I don't have the key at hand since a friend of installed the laptop for the first time and he had the key code.
Is there a way to retrieve the code via microsoft?
for example via verify software or something?
Any comments are very welcome
you'll have to ask your friend who installed it for you originally, i'm afraid, especially now that you've formatted and installed over the old activated os...
It depends on how you obtained that key. Micosoft says this:
DGDepending on your location and your method of payment, your product key may be found in one of the following places:
- Inside your DVD case if you purchased a Vista edition that is different from your current non-genuine OS;
- On the Microsoft Order Confirmation page;
- In the email sent to the address you used to place your order;
- Via a link in your email to an order status page using Passport (you may have created a Passport account when you placed your order.);
- On the packing slip that arrived with your media;
- And finally, if you still don’t have your product key, you may contact the Order Help Desk by using the drop-down menu below to choose your country.
You said you recovered the laptop to factory condition. What was the OS it shipped with?
If Pro, factory Recovery will auto-activate without the need for key.
No it shipped with home premium, and with the upgrade key i upgraded to profesional.
You are all mixed up. If the computer shipped with home premium, it would have an OEM recovery partition for home premium only. Upgrading to a higher version doesnt affect the recovery partition. So if you're trying to recover to factory default, what you'll get at the end of it will be home premium and NO, the process will not ask you for any key, in fact it will autoactivate without any intervention required from you.
So once it has factory recovered to Home Premium, check that it has correctly self-activated at Computer>Properties. If not, click Activate to complete the process.
When you recover your Pro key, type "Anytime" in Start Search box to start the process to unlock the Pro features with Anytime Upgrade, inserting the Pro key when requested.
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