US-TX-Richardson: DB2 UDB DBA (Database Admin)

Q

I bought a windows 8 laptop about a year ago and it came pre-installed with the windows software. A few months ago i had to do a soft refresh of my laptop because i got a minor virus from a download. After the refresh my laptop was working great except now the windows software is no longer on my computer. It doesn't affect too much, I've noticed that my laptop is unable to go through with some updates and I can't download 8.1 or personalize my homescreen and such. Every few hours I get a full page pop up that says I need to activate windows. The problem is that, since windows 8 came pre-installed I don't have a code or anything to enter for the activation. Any ideas on why it would have uninstalled itself, and how i can re-install it without having to buy a product key?

✍: Guest

A
How did you initiate your Windows 8 reinstallation? If you reinstalled from retail media/download, then you might have erased the recovery partition which is the manufacturers appropriate method for reinstalling preinstalled Windows 8. With Windows 8, Microsoft has changed from stickers that have the product key that the user has to type in when installing the operating system to new BIOS embedded product keys. The idea is that by eliminating the sticker, you eliminate one of the easier ways for nefarious users to get a legitimate product key. Eliminating the product key sticker also removes any worry that the sticker might get damaged while at the same time eliminating the long and irritating process of typing in various letters and numbers when installing the operating system. If the user has to reinstall the operating system on a machine that came with Windows 8, the installation process automatically grabs the software product key from the motherboard BIOS with no input from the user. This means that those familiar Windows product key stickers will no longer appear on the Windows 8 computers.

2014-08-06, 1971🔥, 0💬