Windows 8 license key missing / reformatting new laptop.

[chrimbow]

Hi all, I did a search on this and was unable to find any answers so apologies if this has been asked already.

Where do I find my Win8 key?

I have just bought a new Sony laptop with Win8, unlike previous machines I have had there is no license key sticker on the laptop or with any documentation. As I always do with a new PC, I would like to format it to rid it of all the pre-installed rubbish. I have a friend's disc to use but obviously the key belongs to my friends machine. I would like to use the disc and the key that belongs to my machine to make a fresh "as new install". The machine has not been connected to the internet yet so will not have had the chance to register itself (assuming thats what it will do)

Any advice very much appreciated.

[directhex]

Huh, they might not do it anymore - you're meant to use the "Reset" function in Windows 8 to bring the PC back to "clean" state

[chrimbow]

That sounds like a horrible solution. I can see myself having to shell out for a copy

[dangel]

Ignore

[SUMMONER]

Did you have a look inside the battery compartment? Some manufacturers hide the sticker in there, so it doesn't rub off/become illegible over time.

[chrimbow]

Did you have a look inside the battery compartment? Some manufacturers hide the sticker in there, so it doesn't rub off/become illegible over time.

Yes, I checked a load of new Win8 laptops that were on display in the shop, none had licence key labels on display so obviously a change of tack from Microsoft.

[SUMMONER]

Oh dear, that's Microsoft clamping down on people recycling the license codes off the back of old computers.

[g8ina]

Grab a sys info proggy of some sort and see if it will tell you the key....

I use Everest (which became Aida64). Not sure if there is a demo of it to try.

[Firejack]

Did you have a look inside the battery compartment? Some manufacturers hide the sticker in there, so it doesn't rub off/become illegible over time.

Yes, I checked a load of new Win8 laptops that were on display in the shop, none had licence key labels on display so obviously a change of tack from Microsoft.

Formatted several Sony Vaio's over recent years and the Windows sticker was found in the battery compartment. Unless you flip over your laptop and take out the battery you won't see it

[chrimbow]

As I said, I have checked the battery compartment and it is not there, in fact I checked a whole load of new Win8 laptops on display in John Lewis and on all of them all there is is a small windows sticker with no numbers on it. They don't install the batteries on the display items and all were the same in that none had a key sticker.
From what I have read so far, it seems this is a new approach from MS, they dont give you a licence key sticker with Windows 8- at least with mass produced machines with the OS pre-installed on a partition they don't. I am assuming that you get one with an OEM disc.

[Agent]

Most OEM machines do not use the number on the sticker anyway - they use a OEM SLP key that are normally all the same for that manufacturer and version of windows.

The OEM SLP stuff has changed in Windows 8 a fair bit though, so we'll see if this is true soon enough I guess.

[chrimbow]

Sorry, I meant if you bought an OEM disk from ebuyer or similar I assume you get a unique key

[=assassin=]

Not to trying to be Captain Obvious here, but can't you just uninstall the pre-installed stuff? Seems a bit silly to me to completely reformat. I had a Dell that I just uninstalled all the useless stuff they put on, and it works super fast. Why makes things harder?

[chrimbow]

Not to trying to be Captain Obvious here, but can't you just uninstall the pre-installed stuff? Seems a bit silly to me to completely reformat. I had a Dell that I just uninstalled all the useless stuff they put on, and it works super fast. Why makes things harder?

I could, but its never quite fully uninstalled I have found in the past with bundled rubbish.