I bought an HP2000 laptop, came with windows 8 preinstalled, and no disk. it also seems to have come with no friggin product key for it, because i can apparantly get the win8 setup program from their website, but i can't find the product key to type in. i want a fresh install because all the crap that came with it is making this thing run horribly. it freezes when i so much as try to drag a file.
i don't want to have to start popping panels off of it, though my last laptop thats exactly where they hid the stupid key.
Now I'm Outta Here2013-04-01T11:14:41Z
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product key / COA is in the BIOS
if you use a win 8 install media of the same version that the system came with it won't ask for the product key as the installer will find it in the BIOS
if you use a different version
eg. win8 Enterprise you will be prompted for the product key
edit: add another link (in sources) here's the text quoted from the link:
"One of the improvements Microsoft is making to Activation 3.0 for newly built machines that come preloaded with Windows 8, you won’t have a COA (Certificate of Authenticity) sticker attached to the machine anymore. Instead, this will be embedded in the BIOS. This will avoid product keys from being compromised and OEMs will buy what they need."
we bought a lap top with win 8 and the service personal said the win8 key is burned to a chip in the mother board like a mac address so my guess is if the dvd copy is the same version aka home/pro bla bla bla then it will if its not the same version then it will ask for a new key... which is a guess. as stated the system usually comes with a factory restore partition which is what you should use. try the manufacturer support web page to get information on how to do a factory restoration. you may still be under warentee and be able to have a restoration disk set sent to you free as well.
It'll automatically get picked up when you reinstall the OS. The easiest way is reset the PC is to use the built in Refresh feature.
Win + I to open Settings > Change PC settings > General > Refresh > Get started
Windows will do a fresh install but keep your personalization setting, personal files, and Windows Store apps. All the other stuff installed by the manufacturer will get nuked.