Disk cloning: will product key follow?

Jun 24, 2018
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I am an IT Technician for a vocational school and I am considering disk cloning to set up 17 new desktops. Removing bloatware, installing malwarebytes, etc, takes way to long too do individually.

I got the desktops from HP, so they already have Windows activated.

If I disk clone, will the computers find the product key themselves, or do I have to find each key for each desktop and write them down? I'm not sure if the key is embedded somehow in the system and would follow anytime you install that Windows version.

Thanks!
 
Solution
if all desktops are identical machine hardware wise, windows 10 cloned from one source will find its OEM license from the HP BIOS directly yes.
HP uses OEM licensing for their computer and windows should recognize them, clone one and try it on one other machine, I do not think you will have an issue with licensing, but worth testing it out first on a single System.

Colif

Win 11 Master
Moderator
I am curious to know answer to that myself. Which version of windows 10 is it?

Win 10 licenses are either attached to an email address or tied to the PC itself, and unless all 17 have the same licence key, cloning the installs is likely to mess up activation. Is win 10 on the 17 drives now or are they blank?

If Win 10 is enterprise (or educational since its based on Enterprise) you might be able to install them all over a network. If thats the case I believe there are ways of rolling out the image without worrying about licences. I expect thats using a volume licence.

I will see if anyone has a better answer.

Try contacting HP and see if they can offer any support in this matter.
 
if all desktops are identical machine hardware wise, windows 10 cloned from one source will find its OEM license from the HP BIOS directly yes.
HP uses OEM licensing for their computer and windows should recognize them, clone one and try it on one other machine, I do not think you will have an issue with licensing, but worth testing it out first on a single System.
 
Solution