How to embed Windows Key in UEFI BIOS?

So if my laptop came with Windows 10 Home and it has the key in the BIOS but I have my own Windows 10 Pro Key, is there a way to embed my Pro key in the BIOS and remove the built in Home Key?

@Prema

 

Unfortunately not, and the Windows 10 home key will remain in the BIOS. If you ever need to reinstall your OS you would edit the "Ei.CFG" so that you can install Windows pro otherwise when you go to do a clean install your system would revert back to home instead pro. Doing the steps will prevent this just FYI.

Before you begin this process we'll need to create new recovery media to boot from so please get a USB with at least 4GB of space, go to Microsoft website in the link below, click on download tool now, run the setup on the file downloaded, select the option to "create back up media for another PC", and select USB and Windows will create the iso media.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

Now we need to created and add the "Ei.cfg" file to the sources folder of the iso file you just created.

Open up note pad and copy and paste the following:

[EditionID]
Professional
[Channel]
Retail
[VL]

Make sure the USB we created is still in your system, now Save as "Ei.cfg" directly to the "Sources" folder of ISO media created on your USB ( Make sure you add the quotations so when you save this it creates a CFG file and not a text file)


Make sure all your files are backed up before proceeding to the next step.

1. Put the USB into your system and restart your computer.

2. Press the F11 key to enter the boot menu as soon as the computer begins to boot, select the USB and press ENTER to load the Windows setup.

3. Click install now and click through the various options.

4. You should see an option now to select "Windows 10 professional or Home".

4. Once you get to the option to "upgrade" or "Custom", click on Custom.

5. Remove all recovery files, partitions, and wipe your primary HDD.

6. Your drive should say "unallocated", select the unallocated drive and click next to reinstall Windows.

 

Thanks for the steps, coincidentally I just posted a guide about this:

How to select Windows Home or Pro when installing Windows 10

I was just hoping there is a way to embed the key in the BIOS

 

Just backup your windows activation and then install the key into your windows install image and presto, auto activate every time. (Short version of the story)

 

To find out if the key is infact emebed into the UEFI Bios you could run a simple command.

open a command prompt as admin and type in the following command or copy paste it

Code:

powershell "(Get-WmiObject -query ‘select * from SoftwareLicensingService’).OA3xOriginalProductKey"

If it finds a key in the UEFI bios it will return it as an output after your run the command.

I thought my Windows 10 Home key was in the OEM: DM section of the bios but it is not. Its infact installed when you use the recovery system as its in an autounattend.xml file in my case anyway.

My Installed Home key was in fact an OEM: SLP key.

So i would like to point out to anyone planning on wiping the drive and clean installing is to make the Recovery Media with the Recovery Tool supplied my MSI just incase as once that recovery partition is wiped so is the OEM: SLP key if your key is not embedded into the UEFI BIOS. As once you have wiped the drive you loose the key.

 

I just tried that code....If it comes up blank, does that mean there is no key?

Edit
This particular machine did not have the key in the bios, so it did not show up.

 

The key in the BIOS can be changed if you have the right AMI tool.

 

can you help me with that? where to get the tool and how to use it

 

You have 7k laying around for it?

 

I use RWEverything to find the key in the BIOS:\
Download RWEverything and launch it a admin


Click on ACCESS > ACPI Tables

Then go to the MSDM Tab:

 

Ya mine didn't have the MSDN tablet in the bios You can even use AIDA64 under Motherboard -> ACPI and it will be in there too.

 

Yeah, that's what I said.

 

If nothing is returned that means there is no MSDN tablet in the UEFI bios.

 

I use this program to find my windows keys.
Showkeyplus
https://www.tenforums.com/software-apps/2577-showkeyplus.html

 

Nobody has that tool except system manufacturers, but I know Svet can do it since he's good with this area.

If it's viewing, you can use this tool.
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html

 

Yes, but that one wont show upgrade keys....Like going from Windows 7 Pro to Windows 10 Pro.

Example: This is with an image from Microsoft. 3V66T is an embedded image key for upgrading from Windows 7 Pro to Windows 10 Pro

 

I also use Win10 pro key. I simply added it on top. If I need to full format my system, it comes back as win10 home and then I just put my key to make it pro.

If you have an OEM key that gets embedded to the system, I believe you can "tie" it to your windows account and it also helps.

Otherwise the steps provided here by most users do work, or you can always contact MS directly so they can fix it themselves (had to do it once with my GT80 titan as it had originally a win8 key, but I was using 10 now). The bad part about this method, is that they will ask for remote connection to your PC. If you are not happy with people remote controlling your laptop, this is a no go haha.

 

If I had that problem, I would be out of a job. My client list for remotes is over 250 computers.

Also, the backup and restore method works pretty much all the time as well. I have been testing that lately as well. In the last week i have done a system wipe and install for a total of over 120 times. Testing images with all the drivers, updates and software installed. So that there is minimal work after the os is up and running.