Recover my windows license key

Just after a some advice.

My installation of windows 10 started doing something a bit odd a while back and I've been unable to fix it. It wouldn't install Visual Studio or SQL Server. Other products install fine but MS, no dice. I managed to narrow it down to something to do with permissions on an application data directory MS use and got VS to install but nothing has worked for SQL Server. Long story short, I've given up and am planning to wipe and reinstall windows.

My problem is that this installation is an old install, upgraded many times, and I can't even remember where it started out. From memory I think it was originally Vista but I've long since lost the install disk and the license key along with it. From some admittedly brief research on the net it sounds like I can probably recover my license key from windows before I wipe it but I'm not 100% sure how. Any advice on that front would help.

Also, some of my research turned up that I might not need a license key as it can, apparently, be tied to my hardware. In which case a reinstall will just activate automatically. Can anyone confirm that and how would I know if it applies to my machine?

I'm assuming the actual software is freely downloadable and the license is the bit MS charge for. Is that correct?

Last but not least, can anyone identify any other potential problems I' going to run into?

I should say, I'm really not a systems guy. I code. I like to code. But OS's leave me cold and I'm basically a blazing incompetent so please try not to blind me with jargon:)



edit>Hmmm, I just googled and a new copy would only cost £20 or so. Maybe that would be easier.

I use http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html to obtain product keys.

Have a look at https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/soft...load/windows10 which has instructions to create Windows 10 installation media.

Once you have the installation media, try doing a repair of your existing installation.

If you are re-installing Windows 10 Pro for Workstations on your PC, you need to create installation media using the Media Creation Tool and choose Windows 10 as your edition. When you start the installation, choose to skip entering a product key, and instead choose to install Windows 10 Pro. Once you are at the Windows 10 Pro desktop, from the Start Menu, click Settings then Update & security, and Activation. If your PC was previously running Windows 10 Pro for Workstations, click the Go to store button and you can reclaim the edition change to Windows 10 Pro for Workstations at no additional charge.

Groovy. The MS link, in particular, confirms a lot of what I thought and gives me a bit of confidence. Right, tonight I dive in. Wish me luck.

make sure you have a current backup of your data. Just in case........ Good luck! May the electrons be with you.

Which version of SQL Server? As I recall, Win 10 really wants you to install SQL version 14.

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May the electrons be with you.

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May the neutrons pass through you !!

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Which version of SQL Server?

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I tried a dev version of 2012 and community 2015 - same problem with both.