|
If all else fails, perhaps buy a new (OEM) key as described here? I'm looking to go this route when I eventually upgrade my personal dev box from Win7.
/ravi
|
|
|
|
|
I do computer service. I avoid hardware swaps with win 10 for this reason but had to do it for myself I forget if I actually called ms or whether it was over chat but the ran belarc advisor which served up some windows 10 data left for a bit then came back and plugged something else in and it was activated again.
|
|
|
|
|
Piebald is right - contact MS. Have electronic receipts handy and let them dive in and take over if necessary.
I had to do that when I changed MB, and it worked really well - the only complication was that his control software could only see my centre screen (of three) and the taskbar, start menu, etc. was on the left hand one - and wouldn't move because windows wasn't activated ... so he had to ask for an app, I open it and drag it onto the centre screen, etc. Took him a load longer than he expected, I think ...
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
|
|
|
|
|
I saw a post the other day that the free upgrade to W10 is still available. There's a powershell script to do it. Google
|
|
|
|
|
This might interest you - it's a VBScript file he left on my computer which fetches the Win 10 key:
Option Explicit
Dim objshell,path,DigitalID, Result
Set objshell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
'Set registry key path
Path = "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\"
'Registry key value
DigitalID = objshell.RegRead(Path & "DigitalProductId")
Dim ProductName,ProductID,ProductKey,ProductData
'Get ProductName, ProductID, ProductKey
ProductName = "Product Name: " & objshell.RegRead(Path & "ProductName")
ProductID = "Product ID: " & objshell.RegRead(Path & "ProductID")
ProductKey = "Installed Key: " & ConvertToKey(DigitalID)
ProductData = ProductName & vbNewLine & ProductID & vbNewLine & ProductKey
'Show messbox and save to a file
If vbYes = MsgBox(ProductData & vblf & vblf, vbOK + vbInformation, "BackUp Windows Key Information") then
Save ProductData
Else
Save ProductData
End If
'Convert binary to chars
Function ConvertToKey(Key)
Const KeyOffset = 52
Dim isWin8, Maps, i, j, Current, KeyOutput, Last, keypart1, insert
'Check if OS is Windows 8
isWin8 = (Key(66) \ 6) And 1
Key(66) = (Key(66) And &HF7) Or ((isWin8 And 2) * 4)
i = 24
Maps = "BCDFGHJKMPQRTVWXY2346789"
Do
Current= 0
j = 14
Do
Current = Current* 256
Current = Key(j + KeyOffset) + Current
Key(j + KeyOffset) = (Current \ 24)
Current=Current Mod 24
j = j -1
Loop While j >= 0
i = i -1
KeyOutput = Mid(Maps,Current+ 1, 1) & KeyOutput
Last = Current
Loop While i >= 0
If (isWin8 = 1) Then
keypart1 = Mid(KeyOutput, 2, Last)
insert = "N"
KeyOutput = Replace(KeyOutput, keypart1, keypart1 & insert, 2, 1, 0)
If Last = 0 Then KeyOutput = insert & KeyOutput
End If
ConvertToKey = Mid(KeyOutput, 1, 5) & "-" & Mid(KeyOutput, 6, 5) & "-" & Mid(KeyOutput, 11, 5) & "-" & Mid(KeyOutput, 16, 5) & "-" & Mid(KeyOutput, 21, 5)
End Function
'Save data to a file
Function Save(Data)
Dim fso, fName, txt,objshell,UserName
Set objshell = CreateObject("wscript.shell")
'Get current user name
UserName = objshell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings("%UserName%")
'Create a text file on desktop
fName = "C:\Users\" & UserName & "\Desktop\WindowsKeyInfo.txt"
Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set txt = fso.CreateTextFile(fName)
txt.Writeline Data
txt.Close
End Function
If I recall correctly, he used this and entered it on the activation screen. I'd forgotten about that.
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
|
|
|
|
|
I've been on a streak, both offline and on Codeproject - where I got MVA, 2nd best article for november, and may very well get best article for december.
My code has compiled and ran usually on the first try. My code has been clever. My code has worked better than I expected.
What more could I want? I am a happy lil monster.
hack everything.
|
|
|
|
|
I believe you are now ready for what has only been talked about in legends so far....
The Uuuuuuultimate Prrrrrise!
|
|
|
|
|
A one-way trip to Q&A?
Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant Anonymous
- The problem with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they're genuine Winston Churchill, 1944
- Never argue with a fool. Onlookers may not be able to tell the difference. Mark Twain
|
|
|
|
|
Johnny J. wrote: A one-way trip to Q&A? URGENT PLZ WRIT PARZER
|
|
|
|
|
That explains the quantity and frequency of some Lounge posts...
Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant Anonymous
- The problem with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they're genuine Winston Churchill, 1944
- Never argue with a fool. Onlookers may not be able to tell the difference. Mark Twain
|
|
|
|
|
Go to Disneyland. Like totally.
|
|
|
|
|
That is a hell of a run. Nothing makes me happier than writing a bunch of code that not only compiles without error, but works the first time out of the gate.
INTP
"Program testing can be used to show the presence of bugs, but never to show their absence." - Edsger Dijkstra
"I have never been lost, but I will admit to being confused for several weeks. " - Daniel Boone
|
|
|
|
|
Gratifying innit?
The only exception is when i write something I expect to *not* work the first go-round and then it does.
Usually that means it's broken, but i haven't figured out how to break it yet.
hack everything.
|
|
|
|
|
Yes!
For me; the surprise was not that it worked, but that is compiled with out syntax errors or warnings.
INTP
"Program testing can be used to show the presence of bugs, but never to show their absence." - Edsger Dijkstra
"I have never been lost, but I will admit to being confused for several weeks. " - Daniel Boone
|
|
|
|
|
John R. Shaw wrote: but works the first time out of the gate
That would make me suspicious.
|
|
|
|
|
Jörgen Andersson wrote: That would make me suspicious.
Are you kidding me? "Suspicious" is putting it mildly. I'd be second-guessing everything if my code worked the first time I tried it.
|
|
|
|
|
I always second guess everything before I even compile the code. The surprise is not that it worked, but that there were no syntax errors.
INTP
"Program testing can be used to show the presence of bugs, but never to show their absence." - Edsger Dijkstra
"I have never been lost, but I will admit to being confused for several weeks. " - Daniel Boone
|
|
|
|
|
Well...editors themselves are already vocal enough about syntax errors; it's kinda hard nowadays to miss them.
Or are you coding in Notepad?
|
|
|
|
|
So, Newtonsoft is the premier library for JSON in C#. If you create a stringdictionary in C# and serialise it, the resultant JSON will not deserialise using the same library and same CLASS. I had to use Dictionary<string, string="">
|
|
|
|
|
I never used theirs. I just wrote my own.
And as far as JSON being better than XML, it all depends on what you need.
For example, parse trees cannot be accurately represented in JSON because JSON doesn't preserve field order of objects, while XML does preserve order of sub elements.
hack everything.
|
|
|
|
|
Yeah, the header is meant as a joke.
I'm paid to code, I don't waste time rewriting stuff that exists, is well tested and free
|
|
|
|
|
I do if the learning curve is bigger than me simply rolling my own. JSON is trivial to parse and emit
hack everything.
|
|
|
|
|
Yeah, lots of things are trivial without being a five minute job
|
|
|
|
|
Sounds like you already spent that 5 minutes trying to get NewtonSoft's lib to serialize a dictionary, which is rather my point about the learning curve.
hack everything.
|
|
|
|
|
Well, sure, but, I still think I've spent less time dealing with this frustration than it took to write JSON.Net which, again, is widely used so I get the benefit of tons of testing.
When I was new to dev, I mocked the idea of paying for things I knew I could write. Now I know the most important thing is giving my boss a result as quickly as possible. Would you roll your own auth or use Identity, for example?
|
|
|
|