Reset Windows 10, Key or not?

[spree01]

Hello, my mum got some kind of virus on her laptop, and she asked me to reset it. I won't need a key, or? Nothing has changed inside of her computer, but it is the free upgrade windows 10 running on her PC.

-Thanks

 

[USAFRet]

Hello, my mum got some kind of virus on her laptop, and she asked me to reset it. I won't need a key, or? Nothing has changed inside of her computer, but it is the free upgrade windows 10 running on her PC.

-Thanks

No, you won't need the license key.
If you're doing a full wipe and reinstall, when it asks for the license key...at the bottom of that window is a link for "I don't have a product key"
Click that and proceed.

 

[little_me]

you wont need a key when resetting computer if it's already activated (quite likely) since you can skip (or are not even asked) about it on resetting it.
The motherboard tied activation is stored online and as long as it's same, it's same and it reactivates.

If computers activation has been tied to microsoft account, that works too as a means of activation/transferring license.
If not, you should be able to re-enter old license code for it to work.

 

[Colif]

the reset process doesn't ask for a key, it starts from the login stage of install process, after the key would have been entered. You don't need to enter a key at all.