Windows Activating itself on clean install

[Wildfire]

I've recently formatted a Lenovo laptop for my father (deleted the partitions etc) and reinstalled Windows from a download and strangely I didn't need to activate Windows.

When I go to Activate Windows - it says it is digitally linked with my father's Microsoft account. He hasn't bought it.

I've never had this.

Anyone know how this would happen?

[TonyRPH]

The Windows key is usually stored in the bios these days (well, for a few years now).

Microsoft might just be linking the two, because he's used the laptop to login to a Microsoft account.

[Shadow R1]

It links the tpm chip and the Microsoft account, to give the machine a digital licence.

[xeny]

Wildfire said:

I've recently formatted a Lenovo laptop for my father (deleted the partitions etc) and reinstalled Windows from a download and strangely I didn't need to activate Windows.

When you did the install, did it ask you if it wanted you to install home or pro etc? If not, it has picked up a licence burnt into the BIOS and used that (and automatically installed that Windows variant).

Follow the instructions here https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/... to see if this is the case.

[eeLee]

Windows Activation servers keep what is a fingerprint of the hardware that has registered Windows before. This is actually a convenient feature to ease the activation process on rebuild.

Does the edition match the CoA sticker that the laptop should have? Then don't worry, if not then change the product key (I do this, all of my Windows machines are Pro editions).