Is there a way to change the activation key in Windows before you start the out of box experience (setup) on machines w/windows pre-installed? For example, say you purchase a laptop with Home preinstalled, but you have a Pro key, anyone know how to get that Pro key into that laptop before you do the setup?
Current process is:
- Perform setup using dummy user
- Change key after OBE
- "Reset" Windows back to virgin OBE
- Perform setup again, this time under real user
Why does it matter you ask? Because Home SKUs cannot join domains, and you want the user to be a domain user, not a personal Microsoft account, so you need to do the initial setup as a dummy user, then flip to pro so you can join AzureAD (or a local domain), and then wipe and redo the OBE as the actual end-user. Ugly!
You have two options here.
1) You can try and boot the new machine into Windows PE and edit C:\Windows\Panther\unattend\unattend.xml. Look for the product key and try and replace it with your new key. Reboot the machine and it might work but chances are, something will go wrong but it's worth a try.
2) Create a new image using the correct media from the Microsoft VLSC website. Install all your software and create your own sysprep.xml file with the correct settings/product key. With windows 10, I only build 2 images(one for legacy boot and the other for UEFI boot) that works for several different models without any problem. Windows will automatically download drivers for each model after the 1st boot.