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HP Recommended
N8L68PA
Microsoft Windows 10 (64-bit)

I have purchased my HP Pavilion laptop in Nov 2015. It was worked excellent but in 2020 its HDD got crashed beyond recovery. I also lost my recovery cds. Now with new hdd how do I activate my previous licensed Windows 10 OS on my this laptop,

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions
HP Recommended

You're very welcome.

 

Normally all you do is use the media creation tool to create installation media and it automatically installs the right version of W10 the key is good for.

 

There is no telling what your local vendor did, so here is what I suggest you do...

 

Download and install the free Showkey plus app from the Microsoft Store.

 

Get ShowKeyPlus - Microsoft Store

 

The Showkey plus app will show the version of W10 installed, the installed key, and the OEM key and the version of W10 the key is good for.

 

Here is a copy and paste of the showkey plus report for my PC without the keys...

 

ShowKeyPlus - Windows Product Key Information

 

Product Name: Windows 10 Pro

 

Product ID: 00000-50XXX-XXXXX-AXXXX

 

Version: 19042.685 (64-bit OS)

 

Installed Key: XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX

 

OEM Key: XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX

 

OEM Description: Win 10 RTM Professional OEM:DM

 

So what you need to be seeing is 

 

Product Name W10 Home

 

The OEM Description should be Win 10 RTM Home OEM:DM and it should match the Product Name description.

 

If the OEM description does not match... for example the Product name is W10 Home but the OEM Description is W10 Home Single Language, then you need to reinstall W10 using the media creation tool and it will automatically install W10 Home Single language and should activate.

 

If the Product Name and the OEM description are the same and the installed product key is different from the OEM key, change the installed product key to the OEM product key in the PC settings menu and see if W10 will activate then.

 

  1. Select the Start  button, then select Settings  > Update & Security  > Activation .

  2. Select Change product key, and then enter the 25-character Windows 10 Home OEM product key from the Showkey Plus report.

 

View solution in original post

5 REPLIES 5
HP Recommended

Hi:

 

The W10 Home product key is in your notebook's BIOS.

 

To reinstall W10, use the genuine Microsoft media creation tool to create a bootable USB installation flash drive that will reinstall W10.  You will need another Windows PC running W7 64 bit or newer on it to use the media creation tool.

 

Download Windows 10 (microsoft.com)

 

You will not need to enter the product key because it is in the BIOS, and W10 will automatically find it.

 

After W10 has completed installing, you can install the drivers and available software from your notebook's support page.

 

HP Pavilion Notebook - 15-ab219tx Software and Driver Downloads | HP® Customer Support

HP Recommended

Hi Paul,

 

Appreciate your quick response. In my case the local vendor has installed windows 10 64 bit OS. This copy of Windows 10 is showing not activated on my laptop. Before posting my question on this portal I did installed all the drivers from the HP Site, as you as mentioned in your reply. But even after that still my windows 10 OS is showing not activated.

 

Could you please suggest what to do in this scenario?

Will appreciate your support.

HP Recommended

You're very welcome.

 

Normally all you do is use the media creation tool to create installation media and it automatically installs the right version of W10 the key is good for.

 

There is no telling what your local vendor did, so here is what I suggest you do...

 

Download and install the free Showkey plus app from the Microsoft Store.

 

Get ShowKeyPlus - Microsoft Store

 

The Showkey plus app will show the version of W10 installed, the installed key, and the OEM key and the version of W10 the key is good for.

 

Here is a copy and paste of the showkey plus report for my PC without the keys...

 

ShowKeyPlus - Windows Product Key Information

 

Product Name: Windows 10 Pro

 

Product ID: 00000-50XXX-XXXXX-AXXXX

 

Version: 19042.685 (64-bit OS)

 

Installed Key: XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX

 

OEM Key: XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX

 

OEM Description: Win 10 RTM Professional OEM:DM

 

So what you need to be seeing is 

 

Product Name W10 Home

 

The OEM Description should be Win 10 RTM Home OEM:DM and it should match the Product Name description.

 

If the OEM description does not match... for example the Product name is W10 Home but the OEM Description is W10 Home Single Language, then you need to reinstall W10 using the media creation tool and it will automatically install W10 Home Single language and should activate.

 

If the Product Name and the OEM description are the same and the installed product key is different from the OEM key, change the installed product key to the OEM product key in the PC settings menu and see if W10 will activate then.

 

  1. Select the Start  button, then select Settings  > Update & Security  > Activation .

  2. Select Change product key, and then enter the 25-character Windows 10 Home OEM product key from the Showkey Plus report.

 

HP Recommended

Hi Paul,

 

Many thanks. I followed the steps by creating the USB bootable drive and successfully installed windows 10 on my laptop.

 

Thanks a lot.

 

HP Recommended

Anytime.

 

Glad to have been of assistance.

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