well, it would beat spendign a couple hours futzing with windows 7 isos and rufus and that ****ing efi hack you ahve to do for usb media and aparrenlty disabling usb3 mode.
downlaoding windows 10 now, as i planend on using the upgrade tool which downlaod it again anyways
well it didn't skip asking for a key or what edition to install... I'll see what happens when it tries to activate ovber the internet but I suspect I have to install windows 8 first then do the upgrade to 10 that registers my ahrdware as having a valid windowsw 10 key
Well now you have a working OS you can run ShowKeyPlus and find out exactly what is embedded in its bios. It could have either a W8 key or a W7 SLP marker.
If there's a W8 key then you should be able to use that when doing another clean install of W10. You may even be able to activate W10 by changing its installed key to the W8 one, assuming its for the same edition as you installed. If not, then do a W10 clean install of the correct edition and use the W8 key.
If there is a W7 System Locked Preinstall marker, then others such as @SIW2 may be able to tell you how to do an OEM install of W7 that should self-activate from the SLP marker.
showkeyplus says "windows 7 OEM marker present in firmware" but doesn't provide a key. I'm taking that to mean that the system recognizes itself as a windows 7 system but does not internally contain a license for either windows 7 or 8? I can check if there's a digital license but since this was formerly a corporate computer I'd expect that if it had been upgraded to windows 10 it used a KMS server.
I bought a windows 7 pro license off ebay for $12 and I'll see if it gets recognized so i can activate it
Last edited by FuturDreamz; 15 May 2020 at 20:31.
No, W7 never put a key in the bios, just an SLP marker that entitles this PC to run the OEM W7 install. A full key in the bios started with W8.
The OEM marker means that an OEM install will self-activate without needing to go on the internet. For that ideally you would need the W7 recovery disk for this model of Thinkpad X1 Carbon. @SIW2 may be able to help you modify W7 install media to recreate an OEM install that will activate.
The CoA key is an emergency backup for a clean install of W7 using standard MS install media. It was never used in the original OEM install.
The OEM W7 image that was originally put on this PC has a generic key specific to this manufacturer and a certificate identifying the OEM. As long as the SLP marker in the bios matched the the edition and OEM of the generic key it would self-activate. A clean install with the manufacturer's recovery media, or a factory reset from the recovery partition uses the generic key, an OEM certificate and the SLP marker to determine if the installed W7 should self-activate.
I understand there are ways to do a clean install of W7 without using a key, then activate it as if it was an OEM install. As I said, SIW2 is the expert on this.
Why does Microsoft have distinct ISO files for COEM & Standard W7 OS?SIW2 said:
Failing that, you could test your guesses of the CoA key in ShowKeyPlus. type your guesses on its 'check product key' page until it says you have a valid key. When you get it right it will say its a 'Windows 7 OEM:COA' key and what edition it is for.
wow, thta program is a pain because every time you make a mistake it wipes the whole line so you can't just change one letter
...what are the restructions on allowable letters? right now I have a table of 200 posibilities that I'm trying to brute force through https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/soft...nload/windows7
Hi
lets try this tool, to see whats currently reporting
https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=52012
copy/paste the output
further reading
Upgrade to Windows 10 from Windows 7 for Free | Tutorials
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