Hi,
I purchased a new laptop (Dell XPS 13 9370), but it has a Win10 OEM on it …
I want to run Linux Minst on it, so I’ll wipe it clean …
But before I go and wipe it to install Mint, how do I get the Win10 OEM key from it, so I can use this OEM License key to let Win10 run in a VM ?
(the laptop is brand new, so Win10 isn’t even yet activated …)
What is the best way to do this ?
Yes it’s built into the bios if you don’t see the key sticker. Try this command, not likely to work but not impossible. I never looked into why it’s a hit or miss for both BIOS and sticker keys but it gives you a starting point.
wmic path softwarelicensingservice get OA3xOriginalProductKey
They started using the Bios to hold keys back with VIsta (slic table), and it made things easier but still somewhat manual. With Win10 and UEFI, OE’s should all be bios driven and I believe are supposed to automatically activate against MS servers once internet is provided.
If you’re hosing the drive, might I suggest you take a drive image first, just in-case…
I just built a server that the Windows Server Standard key embedded. Since I virtualized the server, there was a special option that had to be enabled under advanced settings in ESXi to allow the VM to read that value from the hardware.