How to confirm my license key is legit?

timemachiner · Jan 20, 2025

Hello.

I was previously running Windows 10 Home Edition. I can't remember where I got my license key from, but I think it was originally a Windows 7 key that I bought directly from Microsoft.

A few years ago, I bought a grey market key for Windows 11 Pro Edition from eBay in order to upgrade from Home to Pro.

Recently, I did a fresh install of my Windows PC and installed Windows 11 Home. On installation, I selected that I don't have a license/activate later (I can't remember the exact phrasing), with the intention to buy a new Home key from Microsoft. However, when I logged in, everything was already activated. I assume it pulled my license from my hardware.

On Settings > Activation, it says "Windows is activated with a digital license linked to your Microsoft account."

I ran the Windows Script Host command and it tells me that I'm running "Windows(R), Core Edition", from the "RETAIL channel" and that it's "Licensed".

So, two questions:

Is it possible that my copy of Windows 11 Home is using my Windows 10 Pro grey market key?
If it is using the grey market key, is this of concern? Specifically, does this grant the seller access to ANY of my information or my system's information, no matter how minor (e.g. name of my PC)? This isn't something I thought about at the time, else I wouldn't have made the purchase.

Thank you.

neemobeer · Jan 20, 2025

1. No, a key is specific to an edition of Windows
2. No a key is solely to activate Windows and nothing more

You can run the command slmgr /dlv to show details about your license in use and it's status. The output is safe to post here if you want confirmation

timemachiner · Jan 20, 2025

Thank you @neemobeer . To confirm on #1, if the key is specific to the edition of Windows, does that mean my copy of Windows 11 Home will have been activated using my Windows 10 Home key (presumably tied to my hardware) rather than my Windows 10 Pro key? Even though I was no longer using Windows 10 Home?

neemobeer · Jan 20, 2025

The slmgr command will confirm that.

timemachiner · Jan 20, 2025

neemobeer · Jan 20, 2025

Does the output of the command 'systeminfo' show Pro or Home?

timemachiner · Jan 20, 2025

neemobeer said:
Does the output of the command 'systeminfo' show Pro or Home?

Home.

neemobeer · Jan 20, 2025

I would just try the pro key. If it doesn't activate it may not be legit.

Type 'slui 4' and enter the license. It should upgrade if it's valid

neemobeer · Jan 20, 2025

Hopefully someone didn't sell you the KMS license key

bobkn · Jan 20, 2025

timemachiner said:
Hello.

I was previously running Windows 10 Home Edition. I can't remember where I got my license key from, but I think it was originally a Windows 7 key that I bought directly from Microsoft.

A few years ago, I bought a grey market key for Windows 11 Pro Edition from eBay in order to upgrade from Home to Pro.

Recently, I did a fresh install of my Windows PC and installed Windows 11 Home. On installation, I selected that I don't have a license/activate later (I can't remember the exact phrasing), with the intention to buy a new Home key from Microsoft. However, when I logged in, everything was already activated. I assume it pulled my license from my hardware.

On Settings > Activation, it says "Windows is activated with a digital license linked to your Microsoft account."

I ran the Windows Script Host command and it tells me that I'm running "Windows(R), Core Edition", from the "RETAIL channel" and that it's "Licensed".

So, two questions:

Is it possible that my copy of Windows 11 Home is using my Windows 10 Pro grey market key?

If it is using the grey market key, is this of concern? Specifically, does this grant the seller access to ANY of my information or my system's information, no matter how minor (e.g. name of my PC)? This isn't something I thought about at the time, else I wouldn't have made the purchase.

Thank you.

What's the hardware?

Appliance PCs these days (Dell, HP, etc.) supposedly have a license key embedded in their BIOSes. If you bought a PC with 10 Home on it, it's expected that a clean install of 11 would give you 11 Home.

timemachiner · Jan 20, 2025

@neemobeer To confirm, I do not need to upgrade to Pro. I am fine with Home, as it's what I selected during installation. I am just wondering whether it's possible to tell whether my system has self-activated itself with my old W7 Home Premium key (which I used to move to W10 with, and have since lost) or the grey market W10 Pro key.

@bobkn I built the PC myself, so I suspect either the W10 home key or the W10 pro key is embedded in the BIOS.

Bree · Jan 20, 2025

timemachiner said:
I was previously running Windows 10 Home Edition. I can't remember where I got my license key from, but I think it was originally a Windows 7 key that I bought directly from Microsoft....

Recently, I did a fresh install of my Windows PC and installed Windows 11 Home. On installation, I selected that I don't have a license/activate later (I can't remember the exact phrasing), with the intention to buy a new Home key from Microsoft. However, when I logged in, everything was already activated. I assume it pulled my license from my hardware.

No, not from the hardware. Starting with Windows 10 activation is by means of a digital licence, this is stored on the Microsoft activation servers and linked to the unique hardware ID of the PC. Once a W10 PC has been activated, whether by a key (W7/W8 when that was still available, just W10 now) or by upgrading from W7/W8 (until that was stopped too) it gets its own digital licence. This licence is permanent and cannot be revoked.

Your install of 11 Home activated from the PC's existing digital licence as soon as it could contact the activation servers. The licence is valid for W10 and W11. Activation doesn't distinguish between them, it's a digital licence for Windows 10/11.

timemachiner · Jan 20, 2025

Bree said:
No, not from the hardware. Starting with Windows 10 activation is by means of a digital licence, this is stored on the Microsoft activation servers and linked to the unique hardware ID of the PC. Once a W10 PC has been activated, whether by a key (W7/W8 when that was still available, just W10 now) or by upgrading from W7/W8 (until that was stopped too) it gets its own digital licence. This licence is permanent and cannot be revoked.

Your install of 11 Home activated from the PC's existing digital licence as soon as it could contact the activation servers. The licence is valid for W10 and W11. Activation doesn't distinguish between them, it's a digital licence for Windows 10/11.

Thanks Bree. Makes sense.

Is there any way to determine whether the digital license was taken from my original W10 Home (formerly W7) key or from the grey market W10 Pro key? I know it doesn't matter from a technical perspective (if the grey market seller can see no info about me), but I am curious.

neemobeer · Jan 20, 2025

Pre installed versions won't be retail channel. They would be OEM

Bree · Jan 20, 2025

timemachiner said:
Is there any way to determine whether the digital license was taken from my original W10 Home (formerly W7) key or from the grey market W10 Pro key? I know it doesn't matter from a technical perspective (if the grey market seller can see no info about me), but I am curious.

No, the digital licence on the activation servers, once the PC has one, seems to keep no record of how it was obtained. If you had previously installed that W10 Pro key, and it had successfully activated, then this PC now has a digital licence for Pro too. If so then you could now upgrade from 11 Home to 11 Pro just by changing the installed key to the generic key for W10/W11 Pro: VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T

Make sure you are online when you try the change to the generic Pro key. Windows will check with the activation servers, if the PC has an existing digital licence for Pro it will let you upgrade, if not it will tell you so and not let you upgrade, as shown here:

Generic Product Keys to Install or Upgrade Windows 11 Editions

This tutorial will provide you with a list of RTM (retail) and KMS generic keys (default keys) for all editions of Windows 10 and Windows 11. Generic keys (aka: "default keys") for Windows 10/11 from Microsoft will allow you to install or upgrade to a specific Windows 10/11 edition you want...

www.elevenforum.com

Upgrade Windows 11 Home to Windows 11 Pro

This tutorial will show you how to upgrade from Windows 11 Home to Windows 11 Pro without losing anything. You can directly upgrade your device from Windows 11 Home to the Windows 11 Pro edition without losing anything. Upgrading to Windows 11 Pro will include features only in the Pro edition...

www.elevenforum.com

antspants · Jan 20, 2025

If you want to bypass the embedded version of Windows Home during the install process and install Windows Pro, please read the following.

To bypass the BIOS version restrictions, you can edit a multi edition Windows.iso

Open notepad and enter the following

Code:

[Channel]
Retail

Save the file as ei.cfg
Place the file in the ISO sources folder.

I am not sure if AnyBurn free (<— Instructions) allows to edit the ISO, there are other ways

Download Anyburn Free (I have the Pro versions so I am unaware of the Free versions restrictions)

During the Windows installation you will be asked what version of Windows you would like to install.

OR

Code:

[EditionID]
{Edition}

[Channel]
Retail

[VL]
0

Replace the line {Edition} with the Windows edition you want to install.
EditionID can be: Home, Professional, Enterprise, Education, and so on, depending on the available editions in your specific Windows ISO

For example:

Code:

[EditionID]
Professional

[Channel]
Retail

[VL]
0

Channel can be changed to Retail or OEM

You can also create a pid file and pre enter your legitimate product key.

Open notepad and enter the following:

Code:

[PID]
Value=XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX

Save the file as pid.txt
Place it into the sources folder

Replace XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX with your legitimate product key. If you don’t have a product key or you want to manually enter it later just skip creating the pid.txt file.

antspants · Jan 20, 2025

Just to mention, this is for a legitimate bypass of the Windows version embedded into a Laptop Bios. It is not a process to bypass license restriction. Simply a version override.

bobkn · Jan 20, 2025

timemachiner said:
(snip)

@bobkn I built the PC myself, so I suspect either the W10 home key or the W10 pro key is embedded in the BIOS.

I've never heard of a motherboard sold by itself with an embedded Windows key.

antspants · Jan 20, 2025

bobkn said:
I've never heard of a motherboard sold by itself with an embedded Windows key.

Either have I, I wrongly assumed it was a laptop.

How to confirm my license key is legit?

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