Pre Installed OS License in T460 BIOS

[sktn77a]

I have a T460 with Windows 10 Pro installed. I can see the preinstalled OS license in the BIOS as SDK0XXXXXX (X added in place of actual numbers). But this doesn't correspond to the activation code a get with any of the key extraction utilities (XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX). Is there any way to extract the preinstalled OS license key from this 10 key code or is the extraction utility actually doing this for me?

Thanks in advance,

[theterminator93]

I created a script at work a few years ago for us to use when we imaged systems needing reactivation with the BIOS embedded license key.

Paste this into a text file, then rename it with a .bat or .cmd extension. Right click then run it as administrator.

Code: Select all

@echo off
cls
for /f "skip=1 tokens=*" %%a in ('wmic path softwarelicensingservice get OA3xOriginalProductKey') do (
  if not defined second_line set "second_line=%%a"
)
echo Activating Windows with product key %second_line% found in BIOS...
slmgr.vbs /ipk %second_line%
slmgr.vbs /ato
pause

If all you want to do is see the key, run this from an elevated Command Prompt.

Code: Select all

wmic path softwarelicensingservice get OA3xOriginalProductKey

[sktn77a]

Thanks terminator. I tried running the script from the administrator command prompt:

wmic path softwarelicensingservice get OA3xOriginalProductKey

but got an invalid argument error. Did I understand this correctly?

[theterminator93]

No, that sounds right. I just ran it on my T25 and it worked, so I'm not sure what might be going on.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>wmic path softwarelicensingservice get OA3xOriginalProductKey
OA3xOriginalProductKey
XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-V8RC2

[sktn77a]

OK, I found a VBS script on the internet and it looks like the key that windows is activated with is the same one that is hard coded into the BIOS.