G+_José Ángel Lozada Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 I recently purchased a laptop and it came loaded with a lot of crapware. I used an aplication to get rid of it but being OCD as I am I would like to make a clean install. I followed a tutorial on a site to extract the Windows 8.1 key from the Bios/UEFI/Whereveritishardcored and I have a retail disk I used to install when I built my desktop. I've read a few success stories and I would like to know if any of you guys have tried this. I mainly want to do a clean install since Im switching to a SSD and I dont want to use the recovery usb it came with since I know it will have the crapware. So yeah... TL;DR Is it possible to make a clean install of Windows 8.1 on a new computer with a retail disk and the OEM key extracted from the BIOS/UEFI/Whetever it is? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Travis Hershberger Posted October 4, 2014 Share Posted October 4, 2014 So long as it's the same computer you should be fine. Might have a bit of trouble getting it to accept the key at first, at least Windows 7 did when I re-install it. If you do just skip that step at first and enter it after running a round of updates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_John Weston Posted October 4, 2014 Share Posted October 4, 2014 Dell and HP are usually good about it when you reinstall. You just use the OS disk and download the drivers. Since you already have the computer running I would check in device manager the makes and models of the NIC WLAN and video card. Those are usually the PITA ones. ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Ben Reese Posted October 7, 2014 Share Posted October 7, 2014 If you're upgrading to an SSD you don't have much to lose. Install the new SSD and throw the CD/USB drive in and see what happens. Chances are you'll have specific drivers to download from the laptop manufacturers site, but if you can get the WiFi working on the computer than that becomes much easier. A clean install of Win 8.1 on an SSD should only take 10-15 minutes and you'll know pretty quickly whether WiFi is going to give you problems or not. Wired networking almost always works in my experience, so you may just have to plug in and download the WiFi drivers from their website. Of course, you could do this ahead of time and put them on a thumb drive, but where's the fun in that!? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_José Ángel Lozada Posted October 7, 2014 Author Share Posted October 7, 2014 I decided to do it today. OEM key that I extracted with Produkey was accepted on the installation and on the first boot everything worked. All I had to do was call MS to activate since Windows said the key was already being used and download the audio drivers. By the way this was done on a HP Pavilion 15T. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Ben Reese Posted October 8, 2014 Share Posted October 8, 2014 Sweet! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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