[Windows 10] Digital License (HWID) & KMS38™ Generation

[Skunk1966]

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You have No permissionsdid you tweak your Windows in any way before starting the process? Or have telemetry disabled?
I just tested the license switch in VM and everything went flawless. Installed programs, files/folders and settings are preserved

[Steve5]

Hi all, question:
I have an SSD with Win10 that was upgrade from a Win7 with Winloader, now I bought a NVMe and want to install fresh but still go back to my SSD if anything happens etc.
So when I install the new Windows do I just use HWIDGEN and then what happens to my old SSD Windows? it will also have the HWIDGEN method?
And I don't have to remove the old key first or anything?

Also what debloater do you guys recommend if any?

[TanMan]

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I suggest you remove any existing drives, install only the NVMe, then install Windows without a key. After you rebuild, connect to the internet, and your PC should automatically activate. If the PC doesn't automatically get activated, then use HWIDGEN to digitally activate.

At this point, you can reinstall the other drives if you want, but leave the SSD until you're sure you don't want to go back to it. As long as you don't write to the SSD, you can always go back to it by uninstalling the NVMe and reinstalling the SSD.

I personally do NOT recommend any debloater - Windows 10 by itself doesn't really have anything that slows it down significantly. And debloaters usually cause more problems than they fix.

[Steve5]

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You have No permissionsAlright thanks, what will writing to the SSD do if I have it installed again while using the NMVe at the same time but booting from the NMVe?
Is there anything other than a debloater to get rid of that extra telemetry "spying" stuff?

[TanMan]

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The reason I told you to remove all the other drives has to do with disk internals, such as the boot record and the BCD. Installing a new disk and installing Windows on it will leave the boot record and BCD on one (or two) of the old disks. So when you boot, it will be a little slower. It will also cause your system to not boot if you ever remove the old disk(s). By removing all the old disks and just leaving the new disk it forces Windows to create all the disk structures on the new disk. If you add the disks later, after Windows has been installed, it will add those disks to the new BCD on the new drive.

If you write to the SSD after you've installed it as a secondary drive, it's possible that you will corrupt it's ability to boot, or run Windows. Of course, just adding documents or files to the SSD probably won't mess anything up, but you really shouldn't mess with it until you decide you don't need to go back to it.

In my opinion, the concern about Windows telemetry is overrated. Google tracks a heck of a lot more information than Windows does, and most people don't even worry that their Android phone is listening to them all the time. If you're really concerned, turn off all the privacy options during install, and don't use Cortana or One Note.

[Steve5]

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You have No permissionsOh ok that makes sense, when dual booting how does that work then, I guess it doesn't mess up if it's not 2 Windows 10 drives on one PC(Linux or Win7, 10 etc?)

[TanMan]

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Dual booting uses a second entry in the BCD. Each entry must have its own partition, but each disk can have multiple partitions. There's no need to use a second disk to dual boot. You can have multiple entries in the BCD, not just 2. Typically the order is newer OS to older, but if you plan on using a Linux partition, you want to install that first since the Linux bootloader is much more flexible and fully featured.

[Skunk1966]

@Steve5 @TanMan please stay on topic please; this topic is about using hwidgen. If you guys want to go into details of dual boot please create a new topic (no offence meant!)

[Roanzi]

Just wanna say that I was getting the error "failed to determine licensing status, please check if your system has any product key installed", and that was because the software protection service wasn't turning on. I managed to turn it to automatic (it was disabled) by using the registry editor. It's the second method in here:

Code:

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[D4VE]

thank you very much