Clean Install On Laptop Went Well


snerd

snerd

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Location
Oklahoma
OS
Windows 11 Pro 25H2 (26200.8655)
I did a clean install of Windows 11 yesterday. It went really smooth. I had gotten the iso from the MS site. I was never asked for a key, though. I guess when I logged in to my Outlook account it's using that? My Dell is an Inspiron 5755 model, 12gb ram, it passed all the checks except for my processor, which is an AMD A8-7410 APU with AMD Radeon R5 Graphicss @ 2.20 GHz. I'm adding my progs back and looking around the new setup. Version s 21H2 22000.526 and seems to be stable and working fine.
 

My Computers My Computers

System One System Two

  • At a glance

    Windows 11 Pro 25H2 (26200.8655)Intel® Core™ i9-13900KS 3.20GHz128GB DDR5-5200 Kingston Fury Beast RGBZotac Trinity NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 4090 24GB ...
    OS
    Windows 11 Pro 25H2 (26200.8655)
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    CLX Intel Battlebox Ultimate (RA)
    CPU
    Intel® Core™ i9-13900KS 3.20GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Hero WIFI - ATX
    Memory
    128GB DDR5-5200 Kingston Fury Beast RGB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Zotac Trinity NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 4090 24GB GDDR6X
    Sound Card
    Realtek USB Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell G3223Q 32" 4K Ultra HD
    Screen Resolution
    3840x2160 @144hz
    Hard Drives
    2TB x 2 Samsung 990 Pro 2280 NVMe M.2 SSD's
    2TB x 1 Samsung 980 Pro 2280 NVMe M.2 SSD
    4 TB x 1 My Passport Ultra External USB
    PSU
    1200W Corsair HX Ser HX1200 80+ Platinum
    Case
    Lian Li / Der Bauer 011DXL ROG
    Cooling
    Phanteks Glacier One 360 RGB AIO LC
    Keyboard
    Logitech K330 Wireless
    Mouse
    Logitech M310 Wireless
    Internet Speed
    1GB Fiber : 945/57
    Browser
    Brave
    Antivirus
    Defender - HitmanPro.Alert
    Other Info
    Macrium Reflect X

  • At a glance

    iPad Air
    Operating System
    iPad Air
    Computer type
    Tablet
    Manufacturer/Model
    Apple
The license key is linked to your MS account, if you upgraded from W10 it will use that existing license
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 11 Pro Beta, 11 Dev, W11 CanaryAMD Ryzen™ 9 5900HX32GBNVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 3070 8GB GDDR6
OS
Windows 11 Pro Beta, 11 Dev, W11 Canary
Computer type
Laptop
Manufacturer/Model
Dell Alienware M15 Ryzen Edition R6
CPU
AMD Ryzen™ 9 5900HX
Memory
32GB
Graphics Card(s)
NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 3070 8GB GDDR6
Hard Drives
1 x Samsung 980 Pro 1TB
1 x Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1TB

My Computers My Computers

System One System Two

  • At a glance

    Windows 11 Pro 25H2 (26200.8655)Intel® Core™ i9-13900KS 3.20GHz128GB DDR5-5200 Kingston Fury Beast RGBZotac Trinity NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 4090 24GB ...
    OS
    Windows 11 Pro 25H2 (26200.8655)
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    CLX Intel Battlebox Ultimate (RA)
    CPU
    Intel® Core™ i9-13900KS 3.20GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Hero WIFI - ATX
    Memory
    128GB DDR5-5200 Kingston Fury Beast RGB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Zotac Trinity NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 4090 24GB GDDR6X
    Sound Card
    Realtek USB Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell G3223Q 32" 4K Ultra HD
    Screen Resolution
    3840x2160 @144hz
    Hard Drives
    2TB x 2 Samsung 990 Pro 2280 NVMe M.2 SSD's
    2TB x 1 Samsung 980 Pro 2280 NVMe M.2 SSD
    4 TB x 1 My Passport Ultra External USB
    PSU
    1200W Corsair HX Ser HX1200 80+ Platinum
    Case
    Lian Li / Der Bauer 011DXL ROG
    Cooling
    Phanteks Glacier One 360 RGB AIO LC
    Keyboard
    Logitech K330 Wireless
    Mouse
    Logitech M310 Wireless
    Internet Speed
    1GB Fiber : 945/57
    Browser
    Brave
    Antivirus
    Defender - HitmanPro.Alert
    Other Info
    Macrium Reflect X

  • At a glance

    iPad Air
    Operating System
    iPad Air
    Computer type
    Tablet
    Manufacturer/Model
    Apple
snerd said:
I didn't upgrade, did a clean install.
Click to expand...
Yeah I kinda guessed that after I read you had an unsupported processor
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 11 Pro Beta, 11 Dev, W11 CanaryAMD Ryzen™ 9 5900HX32GBNVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 3070 8GB GDDR6
OS
Windows 11 Pro Beta, 11 Dev, W11 Canary
Computer type
Laptop
Manufacturer/Model
Dell Alienware M15 Ryzen Edition R6
CPU
AMD Ryzen™ 9 5900HX
Memory
32GB
Graphics Card(s)
NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 3070 8GB GDDR6
Hard Drives
1 x Samsung 980 Pro 1TB
1 x Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1TB
snerd said:
I did a clean install of Windows 11 yesterday. It went really smooth. I had gotten the iso from the MS site. I was never asked for a key, though.
Click to expand...
Starting with Windows 8, all PCs supplied with Windows pre-installed by the OEM have a key embedded in the bios firmware. This replaced the CoA sticker used with Windows 7 or earlier.

On a clean install of Windows 10 or 11 Setup will read this key and use it to choose the edition to install (Home or Pro) and to activate it.

You can read your embedded key with ShowKeyPlus.

www.tenforums.com

ShowKeyPlus - Windows 10 Help Forums

I have converted the vbs to .Net for speed and backward compatibility with Win 8.0. Should be fine on WTP, but please report any bugs (This is a quite
www.tenforums.com www.tenforums.com
 

My Computers My Computers

System One System Two Other systems

  • At a glance

    Windows 11 HomeAMD Athlon Silver 3050U8GBRadeon Graphics
    OS
    Windows 11 Home
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Acer Aspire 3 A315-23-R9VY
    CPU
    AMD Athlon Silver 3050U
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Radeon Graphics
    Monitor(s) Displays
    laptop screen
    Screen Resolution
    1366x768 native resolution, up to 2560x1440 with Radeon Virtual Super Resolution
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung EVO 870 SSD (from April 2026: 250GB EVO 850)
    Internet Speed
    150 Mbps
    Browser
    Edge, Firefox
    Antivirus
    Defender
    Other Info
    fully 'Windows 11 ready' laptop. Windows 10 C: partition migrated from my old unsupported 'main machine' then upgraded to 11. A test migration ran Insider builds for 2 months. When 11 was released on 5th October 2021 it was re-imaged back to 10 and was offered the upgrade in Windows Update on 20th October. Windows Update offered the 22H2 Feature Update on 20th September 2022. It got the 23H2 Feature Update on 4th November 2023 through Windows Update, 24H2 on 3rd October 2024 through Windows Update by setting the Target Release Version for 24H2, and 25H2 on 30th September 2025 through Windows Update by setting the Target Release Version for 25H2.

    UPDATE - 11 April 2026: due to mechanical deterioration this PC has been retired from active duty. The OS with all software and files has been migrated to my System Seven in 'Other systems' to carry on as my general purpose 'main machine'.

  • At a glance

    Windows 11 ProIntel® Core™ i5-520M8GB(integrated graphics) Intel HD Graphics
    Operating System
    Windows 11 Pro
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Latitude E4310
    CPU
    Intel® Core™ i5-520M
    Motherboard
    0T6M8G
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics card(s)
    (integrated graphics) Intel HD Graphics
    Screen Resolution
    1366x768
    Hard Drives
    500GB Crucial MX500 SSD
    Browser
    Firefox, Edge
    Antivirus
    Defender
    Other Info
    unsupported machine: Legacy bios, MBR, TPM 1.2, upgraded from W10 to W11 using W10/W11 hybrid install media workaround.

    In-place upgrade to 22H2 using ISO and a workaround.
    Feature Update to 23H2 by manually installing the Enablement Package.
    In-place upgrade to 24H2 using hybrid 23H2/24H2 install media.
    Upgraded to 25H2 by Enablement Package.

    Also running Insider Dev, and Canary builds and Windows 10 as native boot .vhdx.
  • My SYSTEM THREE is a Dell Latitude 5410, i7-10610U, 32GB RAM, 512GB NVMe ssd, supported device running Windows 11 Pro.

    My SYSTEM FOUR is a 2-in-1 convertible Lenovo Yoga 11e 20DA, Celeron N2930, 8GB RAM, 256GB ssd. Unsupported device: currently running Win10 Pro, plus Win11 Pro RTM and Insider Dev, Beta, and RP 24H2 as native boot vhdx.

    My SYSTEM FIVE is a Dell Latitude 3190 2-in-1, Pentium Silver N5030, 8GB RAM, 1TB NVMe ssd, supported device running Windows 11 Pro, plus Insider Beta, Dev, and Canary builds (and a few others) as a native boot .vhdx.

    My SYSTEM SIX is a Dell Latitude 5550, Core Ultra 7 165H, 64GB RAM, 1TB NVMe SSD, supported device, Windows 11 Pro 24H2, Hyper-V host machine. Updated to 25H2 on 30th September 2025.

    My SYSTEM SEVEN is a Lenovo Thinkpad T580, Intel Core i7-8650U, 16GB RAM, 512GB NVMe SSD + 2nd 512GB NVMe SSD, a supported device for Windows 11. This is my current general purpose 'main machine'. The installed Windows 11 Home from my System One has been migrated to this machine.
snerd said:
I did a clean install of Windows 11 yesterday. It went really smooth. I had gotten the iso from the MS site. I was never asked for a key, though. I guess when I logged in to my Outlook account it's using that? My Dell is an Inspiron 5755 model, 12gb ram, it passed all the checks except for my processor, which is an AMD A8-7410 APU with AMD Radeon R5 Graphicss @ 2.20 GHz. I'm adding my progs back and looking around the new setup. Version s 21H2 22000.526 and seems to be stable and working fine.
Click to expand...
It's on the Motherboard. Windows automatically recognizes you have a valid key, and activates automatically.

Glad it went well :)
 

My Computers My Computers

System One System Two

  • At a glance

    Windows 11 Home 25H2Core i5-1035G132gb
    OS
    Windows 11 Home 25H2
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion 14-ce3606sa
    CPU
    Core i5-1035G1
    Memory
    32gb
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 870 evo sata ssd
    Cooling
    Could be better
    Internet Speed
    50 mbps Starlink
    Browser
    Firefox
    Other Info
    Originally came installed with a 500gb H10 Optane ssd

  • At a glance

    Windows 11 HomeIntel Core i5-1035G116gb
    Operating System
    Windows 11 Home
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion ce3606sa
    CPU
    Intel Core i5-1035G1
    Memory
    16gb
    Hard Drives
    Hynix Gold P31 2TB
    Internet Speed
    200mbps Starlink
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    Defender
If you have a Windows 8 core (home) or newer key in BIOS, Windows Setup detects the Home key and installs Windows 11 Home. If you have activated Windows 8 Pro or newer before on the same PC, you can then change the Windows key to the default Windows 10/11 Pro key: VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T This will upgrade Windows 11 Home to Windows 11 Pro and then activate automatically by digital license stored on MS servers. If the same PC has been activated with Pro license before, you don't need to use your Microsoft Account. It will activate automatically.
 

My Computers My Computers

System One System Two

  • At a glance

    Windows 11 Pro 23H2 (5699), 25H2 (8655)Mobile DualCore Intel Core 2 Duo T7250, 2000 MHz4GBMobile Intel(R) GMA 4500M (Mobile 4 series)
    OS
    Windows 11 Pro 23H2 (5699), 25H2 (8655)
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Acer Extensa 5630EZ
    CPU
    Mobile DualCore Intel Core 2 Duo T7250, 2000 MHz
    Motherboard
    Acer Extensa 5630
    Memory
    4GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Mobile Intel(R) GMA 4500M (Mobile 4 series)
    Sound Card
    Realtek ALC268 @ Intel 82801IB ICH9 - High Definition Audio Controller
    Monitor(s) Displays
    1
    Screen Resolution
    1280x800
    Hard Drives
    Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250GB SATA Device (250 GB, SATA-III)
    Internet Speed
    VDSL 50 Mbps
    Browser
    MICROSOFT EDGE
    Antivirus
    WINDOWS DEFENDER
    Other Info
    Legacy MBR installation, no TPM, no Secure Boot, no WDDM 2.0 graphics drivers, no SSE4.2, cannot get more unsupported ;) This is only my test laptop. I had installed Windows 11 here before upgrading my main PC. For my main PC I use everyday see my 2nd system specs.

  • At a glance

    Windows 11 Pro v25H2 (build 26200.8655)Intel Core-i7 3770 3.40GHz s1155 (3rd generat...2x Kingston Hyper-X Blu 8GB DDR3-1600GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3050 WINDFORCE OC V2 6GB...
    Operating System
    Windows 11 Pro v25H2 (build 26200.8655)
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Custom-built PC
    CPU
    Intel Core-i7 3770 3.40GHz s1155 (3rd generation)
    Motherboard
    Asus P8H61 s1155 ATX
    Memory
    2x Kingston Hyper-X Blu 8GB DDR3-1600
    Graphics card(s)
    GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3050 WINDFORCE OC V2 6GB (GV-N3050WF2OCV2-6GD)
    Sound Card
    Realtek HD audio (ALC887)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Sony Bravia KDL-19L4000 19" LCD TV via VGA
    Screen Resolution
    1440x900 32-bit 60Hz
    Hard Drives
    WD Blue SA510 2.5 1000GB SSD as system disk, Western Digital Caviar Purple 4TB SATA III (WD40PURZ) as second
    PSU
    Thermaltake Litepower RGB 550W Full Wired
    Case
    SUPERCASE MIDI-TOWER
    Cooling
    Deepcool Gamma Archer CPU cooler, 1x 8cm fan at the back
    Keyboard
    Mitsumi 101-key PS/2
    Mouse
    Sunnyline OptiEye PS/2
    Internet Speed
    100Mbps
    Browser
    Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox
    Antivirus
    Microsoft Windows Defender
    Other Info
    Legacy BIOS (MBR) installation, no TPM, no Secure Boot, WDDM 3.0 graphics drivers, WEI score 7.4
CornishRattler said:
The license key is linked to your MS account, if you upgraded from W10 it will use that existing license
Click to expand...
That is incorrect. The license is linked to the motherboard that it was last installed on and the digital license is stored on Microsoft Activation Servers based upon the unique hardware ID of the motherboard and the version of Windows 10/11 that was previously licensed. The Microsoft Account has nothing to do with it. When you log into a computer that has a digital license for Windows 10/11, a link is generated in the device list of our Microsoft Account that points to the digital license that is stored on Microsoft Activation servers.
 

My Computers My Computers

System One System Two

  • At a glance

    Windows 11AMD Ryzen 7 3800XT32GBEVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti
    OS
    Windows 11
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Homebuilt
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen 7 3800XT
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Crosshair VII Hero (WiFi)
    Memory
    32GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti

  • At a glance

    Windows 11 EducationIntel i7-8550U32GBNvidia Geforce MX150
    Operating System
    Windows 11 Education
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Inspiron 7773
    CPU
    Intel i7-8550U
    Memory
    32GB
    Graphics card(s)
    Nvidia Geforce MX150
    Sound Card
    Realtek
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17"
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    Toshiba 512GB NVMe SSD
    SK Hynix 512GB SATA SSD
    Internet Speed
    Fast!
NavyLCDR said:
That is incorrect. The license is linked to the motherboard that it was last installed on and the digital license is stored on Microsoft Activation Servers based upon the unique hardware ID of the motherboard and the version of Windows 10/11 that was previously licensed. The Microsoft Account has nothing to do with it. When you log into a computer that has a digital license for Windows 10/11, a link is generated in the device list of our Microsoft Account that points to the digital license that is stored on Microsoft Activation servers.
Click to expand...
Ah right, so no linking at all then
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 11 Pro Beta, 11 Dev, W11 CanaryAMD Ryzen™ 9 5900HX32GBNVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 3070 8GB GDDR6
OS
Windows 11 Pro Beta, 11 Dev, W11 Canary
Computer type
Laptop
Manufacturer/Model
Dell Alienware M15 Ryzen Edition R6
CPU
AMD Ryzen™ 9 5900HX
Memory
32GB
Graphics Card(s)
NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 3070 8GB GDDR6
Hard Drives
1 x Samsung 980 Pro 1TB
1 x Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1TB
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