Can't Activate WIN 10

[Peter6083]

I have had my HP ENVY new in box since 2013 and decided to start it up to replace another PC that was dying.  It started up in WIN 8 (not 8.1) and was soon doing all the updates needed to bring it up to speed. I did not upgrade to WIN 8.1.

Before the cutoff for free WIN 10 upgrade I installed the upgrade and all was well until I saw the message that WIN 10 needed to be activated. I had no product key from WIN 8, but used Majical Jellybean Keyfinder to get the key, but WIN 10 would still not activate.  According to Win Support I need to get a key for WIN 8 to activate WIN 10 but the key in the bios was overwritten by a default WIN 10 key overwritten during the upgrade.

So is there any way around this so I can activate WIN 10 or is there a way I can get a WIN 8 key to fix this problem?

My other alternative is to buy WIN 10 and do a reinstall but I would like to avoid that.

Thanks.

[WAWood · Accepted solution]

Peter6083

First off, by itselfr,Windows is UNABLE to write to the UEFI firmware where the product key is installed; so, there is no way that a Windows installation would overwrite that key.  You would have to use special firmware-programming code (like that included with BIOS updates) to change the firmware.

Second, MagicalJellyBean is unreliable for finding OEM product keys as it tends to report only what it sees in the Registry, and that is not always correct.

To find the OEM product key embedded into the UEFI firmware, us this utility: Showkey - Windows 10 Forums

Good Luck

[Peter6083]

It worked!  Very happy with this response to my question and after the run around from Microsoft and HP as to how to solve this problem I wonder hoiw much help they really are.  Thank you very much.