Windows 10: Did I need my windows 11 product key to factory reset and reinstall windows?

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:)

 

Reinstalling windows 10 after factory reset

Greg,

Of course I tried everything else first, my last choice is a factory reset because I don't want Windows 7 back with Internet Explorer 9, its so outdated I can't surf the web. (And don't even get me started on IE11). Reinstalling Windows ran into a problem
and wouldn't complete. However, this doesn't even matter now because I already did the factory reset and my PC is up and running again. My problem is getting Windows 10 back.

Windows 10 setup does NOT ask for a product key, there is NO step to skip. It runs thru the entire download and installation itself without ever even mentioning a product key until it stops to tell me it failed to validate product key, that's when its over.
The end, it does not give me any options from there.

 

Windows Product Key

A friend of mine has an all-in-one that came with Windows 8 pre-installed. He erased the original OS thinking he could install another version of Windows 8. One thing he encountered, that he didn't expect, the BIOS/UEFI has a password. So, basically he is locked out from installing another OS. His BIOS has the product key nestled inside. Is it possible to find out which version the product key belong to?

 

Windows 10 activation problem after factory reset. Error 0xC004C003





See the windows is activated. And this is the screen which asks the product key. I can only skip this step if I boot from the dvd and select the clean install option.

"slmg /ato" returns Activating Windows core single language edition (a string of numbers and alphabets)
Product activated successfully.