Thinkpads Forum

Hi,

A couple of years ago I bought myself a T540P which came preloaded with Win8. I immediately reformatted the drive and installed Ubuntu Linux which I've used happily since. For various reasons, I now need to return to Windows on this box. No need for dual boot or anything like that, just really want to get the machine back to it's factory settings. If I ever created any restore disks, they are long gone by now. What are my options here? I should be able to download the vanilla Win8 installation somewhere right? Presumably, there is a license associated with this machine isn't there? If that's the case, how do I get the key?

Anyway, some pointers here would be great!

ts1971 wrote:What are my options here? I should be able to download the vanilla Win8 installation somewhere right? Presumably, there is a license associated with this machine isn't there? If that's the case, how do I get the key?

My understanding - which may be incorrect - is as follows:

1) You can't download W8 legally. Having said that, if you're able to borrow a copy of media that matches your edition (Home, Pro etc.) it will work just fine because

2) The key is stored in your machine's BIOS.

Good luck.

ajkula66 wrote:

ts1971 wrote:What are my options here? I should be able to download the vanilla Win8 installation somewhere right? Presumably, there is a license associated with this machine isn't there? If that's the case, how do I get the key?

My understanding - which may be incorrect - is as follows:

1) You can't download W8 legally. Having said that, if you're able to borrow a copy of media that matches your edition (Home, Pro etc.) it will work just fine because

2) The key is stored in your machine's BIOS.

Good luck.

When you say that you think that you can't download Win8 legally, is that because of something special about Win8? Because the last time that I did this, which was admittedly several years ago, I was surprised to find that it was perfectly legal to download any version of Windows and that they were publicly available somewhere. It was only trying to install them on a machine for which they weren't licensed that was the problem. That's encouraging about the BIOS though.

Thanks

ts1971 wrote:When you say that you think that you can't download Win8 legally, is that because of something special about Win8? Because the last time that I did this, which was admittedly several years ago, I was surprised to find that it was perfectly legal to download any version of Windows and that they were publicly available somewhere. It was only trying to install them on a machine for which they weren't licensed that was the problem. That's encouraging about the BIOS though.

My understanding is that all the legal downloads that were available through Digital River were pulled by Microsoft. Having said that, it's been at least a year since I've last looked into this matter since I have all the media that I could possibly need for the foreseeable future.

Good luck.

They are still online, just not easy to find. A tool has been made to do so automatically:
https://www.heidoc.net/joomla/technolog ... nload-tool

I don't see Win8 in the list, just Win8.1, but it shouldn't matter for licensing purposes.