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12-04-2022 06:53 PM
I bought an HP ProDesk 600 G6 Microtower PC directly from HP about a year and a half ago. It came with Windows 10 Pro 64-bit installed.
I need to reinstall the operating system and I have a question about licensing.
I plan to download Windows 10 Pro 64-bit from the Microsoft site, put it on a USB drive and reinstall the operating system on the HP from the USB drive.
My question is that when I reinstall Windows 10 Pro this way on the HP, will it automatically be licensed?
Is there anything else I have to do so that it will be activated and licensed, or do I just need to install it and it will all happen automatically?
If not how do I activate it? I don't believe I received any activation codes with the PC.
Thank you for any help!
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12-04-2022 07:31 PM
Hi:
If the PC came from HP with W10 installed, the W10 product key is encrypted in the PC's BIOS.
You won't need to enter a product key to reinstall W10 and it should automatically activate once you are connected to the internet.
Your PC is also supported by the HP cloud recovery client utility which you can use to make a bootable USB W10 installer.
This package provides the Cloud Recovery Client for supported computer models using a supported operating system. This Client Utility enables users to download the Recovery Kit from the cloud.
https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp142501-143000/sp142993.exe
I have attached the instructions for use, below.
There is a section in the document for how to automatically install the drivers and applicable software that your PC came with as well.
12-04-2022 07:31 PM
Hi:
If the PC came from HP with W10 installed, the W10 product key is encrypted in the PC's BIOS.
You won't need to enter a product key to reinstall W10 and it should automatically activate once you are connected to the internet.
Your PC is also supported by the HP cloud recovery client utility which you can use to make a bootable USB W10 installer.
This package provides the Cloud Recovery Client for supported computer models using a supported operating system. This Client Utility enables users to download the Recovery Kit from the cloud.
https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp142501-143000/sp142993.exe
I have attached the instructions for use, below.
There is a section in the document for how to automatically install the drivers and applicable software that your PC came with as well.
12-14-2022 06:41 AM
Thank you for the prompt and useful response.
I made the recovery USB from the Microsoft image and it worked perfectly and never asked me to activate. So I assume it activated automatically from the BIOS info. as you advised. Excellent.
Several days after I installed the OS, I got a screen telling me that I was being offered a free upgrade to Windows 11. But I declined to upgrade because I rely on this PC for important work, had just got it back up and running, and reinstalled the software I needed and didn't want to do anything so drastic in case it caused more problems. In particular, I am not even sure if all my software will run properly in Windows 11 so did not want to take any chances.
But I have some questions about this upgrade to Windows 11.
During my reinstall of Windows 10, it appears that it included a BIOS update from HP. The HP boot screen is different now so it appears that the HP BIOS was flashed during the Windows 10 upgrade. So my first question is this:
1. Did that BIOS update authorize my PC BIOS to automatically activate Windows 11 if it is installed? One reason that I did not authorize the update to Windows 11 is because I was afraid I might have a problem getting it activated. Unless there is automatic activation from BIOS like there was with Windows 10 Pro, I wouldn't know how to activate it. And if I ever have to reinstall it, I would want to be sure it could get activated from BIOS.
Additional questions:
2. Who did that offer for the free upgrade to Windows 11 come from? Was it from Microsoft or from HP?
3. It did not say what edition of Windows 11 the upgrade would be. I assume it would be the Pro edition since I have the Pro edition of Windows 10 now, but I would not want the Home edition.
4. I might consider the update if I can find out the answers to the above questions. But if I wanted to do that update now, I don't know how to get it. After that offer was made, I have never seen it again. So I am wondering how I could do that upgrade if I change my mind.
Thank you for the great response and any help on this related issue would be greatly appreciated.
12-14-2022 06:59 AM
You're very welcome.
It appears that nowadays HP is pushing some BIOS updates via the Windows update program.
As a matter of fact, I just got one pushed to my HP notebook PC yesterday.
It is labeled as a Hewlett-Packard firmware (with a number afterward).
Whatever BIOS update you received had nothing to do with W11, or activation, or replacing a W10 key.
If you look at your PC's support page's driver section, you will find the latest BIOS update which was probably the same one Microsoft sent. You can read the release notes for what it did.
This is what the F.22 BIOS update did for my notebook. It was on my notebook's support page and is the same one that was installed via Windows Update.
- Provides improved system stability.
W11 uses the same product key to activate that W10 did when you do an upgrade.
Microsoft offers the free upgrade to W11, not HP.
You would be upgraded from W10 Pro > W11 Pro, since your PC came with a W10 Pro license/product key.
You would be upgraded to the latest build of W11, which is currently 22H2.
If you ever had to reinstall W11, you do not have to reinstall W10 Pro first (unless you wanted to).
You can make a bootable USB installation flash drive with the W11 media creation tool (2nd option) and reinstall W11 Pro.
Download Windows 11 (microsoft.com)
When you get past the 'Install Now' screen, you may be asked what version of W11 do you want to install.
Select W11 Pro.
Then you may be asked to enter a product key. Select the 'I don't have a product key' option, and W11 will install and automatically activate after you are connected to the internet.
Then you can install the W11 drivers and available software from your PC's support page.
If you want to try out the upgrade to W11, and things don't work right, you have 10 days to easily go back to W10 as long as you don't delete any of the W11 upgrade files or the Windows.old folder.
Microsoft: You can easily go back to Windows 10 from Windows 11 (windowslatest.com)
I have done all of these things I have written regarding W11, so I know it works that way.
I only went back to W10 on one of my many PC's because W11 made it run slower than it did on W10 and on every one of my other PC's the performance was improved.
12-14-2022 07:32 AM - edited 12-14-2022 07:44 AM
Thanks again Paul! When you are listed as a "Expert" they ain't kidding!
Please excuse my change of screen names as the first post was an emergency account I set up on my phone while my computer was down.
Yes, I was surprised and a little concerned when I noticed the BIOS was being flashed as I installed a clean Windows 10 Pro OS from Microsoft. I did not expect that to happen. And since the reason for the reinstall was a virus attack, I was even more concerned that something sinister was happening. So that threw me a little. But everything seems to be working great now.
I don't know if it was the BIOS update or the fact that I used the image from Microsoft instead of using an image that includes all the original HP software as well as Windows 10, but the PC is running more crisply and better now than it ever did even when it was new a year and a half ago.
Frankly, I don't want all the HP software installed. I didn't feel it was of any value and was too intrusive and that it probably slowed the computer down. Maybe it is good in some scenarios like for PCs that are used in a business environment. But for my personal use machines I prefer just installing a clean OS only image. So that is why I didn't use the cloud image since I assume that would be the original image that came with the PC (plus any updates) and would include all the HP software. No offense to HP, but it felt like one OS on top of another OS when I got the new machine and I was thankful to have an opportunity to install the Windows 10 OS without the HP software (even though I wish I never got the virus! My fault. I inadvertently connected a very old external hard drive to see what was on it and forgot that it was retired because there was a really nasty virus on it! Boy do I feel like a dummy!)
I bought a new HP laptop a few weeks ago to use to fix this PC. Love the laptop. It has Windows 11 Pro so I might use it a bit to see how I like it and if I do might consider upgrading the PC (with a fresh install of 11 Pro).
I normally don't like to do OS updates to a new OS. I would prefer installing the new OS clean from scratch. Just don't like the idea of installing such a drastic OS update on the same computer where my data is. So if I installed Windows 11 Pro, I would do a clean install and start over.
If I understood your comment correctly, you are saying that since my BIOS automatically activates Windows 10 Pro in a clean install it will also automatically activate Windows 11 Pro if I do a clean install?
12-14-2022 07:40 AM
Anytime.
Yes, I have clean installed W11 on that same HP notebook I mentioned, it will absolutely not do an in-place update to W11, so I had to clean install it. It would not update from W11 21H2 to 22H2 either, so I had to clean install that too.
I don't believe it even asked me to enter the version of W11 or the product key, but it was activated afterward.
I also prefer clean installs using the Microsoft ISO files but I always let folks know about the HP recovery options, because some folks want or need the original HP stuff.
If you use a business class PC at home like I do, some of those utilities can get you in trouble.
I have read tales of woe from other forum members who tinkered with the HP security software that comes bundled with the PC and locked themselves out.
12-14-2022 08:43 AM
Good to know that I can install Windows 11 on the HP PC I bought with Windows 10 and it will also automatically activate. Did not know that.
Not sure what advantage Windows 11 would give me over Windows 10. So at the moment I can't see a reason to suffer the learning curve or have to worry that some of my software isn't compatible with something in Windows 11. So I'll stick with one Windows 10 computer and one Windows 11 computer for now instead of replacing the Windows 10 with 11 on that PC and that way can experiment with both.
I also didn't know that there was an option to make a cloud image from HP to restore the OS so even though I didn't use it this time I am grateful that you mentioned it. Nice to know!
Thanks again for all the great help!