Free upgrade to Windows 11

[frankap]

Hello

I purchased my HP 255 laptop on 14-10-2021 from Mesh computers, via Amazon. It came preloaded with Windows 10 PRO.

I now want to upgrade through the free upgrade scheme for Windows 10 operating systems.

I loaded Windows 11 with the Windows 11 upgrade assisiant. This went very well and i now had a working system.

However. it wasn't activated and said it could not find a lidense key on my  system.

Using various tools[Speccy,Belarc advisor etc] i could not recover a key. In desperation i tried using a key for Windows 8 that i purchase years ago, and Bingo this key worked and i was now activated.

I was worried that this proceedure was not valid and i would find myself once again without valid activation. Therefore i rolled back to Windows 10, to try and locate the original key. This has also failed,

I now wonder if my laptop is not valid for the free update.

Perhaps i could get your opinions?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

According to the product specs for your notebook, it came with FreeDOS, which means that there is no product key in the BIOS, and you needed to enter a W10 product key when you installed Windows.

You should be able to use that key to activate W11 as well.

HP 255 G7 Ryzen 3 8GB 256GB SSD 15.6" FreeDos Laptop | Ebuyer.com

If the W8 key you used worked to activate W11, you should be fine.

You were authorized to upgrade from W7, W8, and W8.1 to W10, and the upgrade to W10 to W11 is free, so I don't see anything wrong with what you did.

[frankap]

As i said, my laptop came with Windows 10 preinstalled, so i dont have a license key.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

...and as I said, your notebook came with FreeDOS, according to all the searches I have conducted, not W10, so there is no product key in the BIOS.

You have already found out that your notebook has no product key in the BIOS.

Probably a third party installed W10 on your notebook, not HP, if you did not order the notebook from HP directly.

What I don't understand is how W10 is even activated in the first place if there is no product key.

Did you use the showkey plus app to find any installed keys?

Get ShowKeyPlus - Microsoft Store

[frankap]

I thiink that you are absolutely correct

My laptop was not supplied from HP direct, it came from "Mesh computers.

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

I would just use the W8 product key.

You know it works, and it should work forever.

Your only other option would be to contact the seller,  and request they supply you with a valid W10 product key. 

[frankap]

I have since contacted the supplier, Mesh Computerts" and they have given me a key to activate Win 11, but it returns a not valid key message.

Therefore i have now reloaded Windows 11 PRO, via the assistant, and activated it again with my unused Windows 8 PRO key.

Both Belarc and Speccy report success and they both display the key. Strange thing is they both returned the same key but it wasn't the one i used far activation.

I am happy now, but dissapointed that Mesh never stated that this computer was not able to update to a working copy of Windows 11.

Thanks for all of your replies.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Anytime.

Glad to have been of assistance.