Reinstalling Windows 10 on DFE Laptop

[andyt57]

One of my schools has been issued with 4 Lenovo 100e 2nd Gen Windows laptops. They are pretty hopeless, with a 1.1GHz Celeron N4120, 4Gb RAM and a 57.6Gb drive.

 

Anyway I wiped one and installed Windows 10 Education 21H2. Despite having a Microsoft Windows for Education sticker underneath Windows is not activated and it's complaining that it can't connect to an activation server.

 

The school does not have a Microsoft Licensing agreement so I do not have access to a MAK key.

 

How can I get Windows to activate, or should I just throw it in the bin?

 

Andy

[chazzy2501]

put it on the internet and try and activate? not sure that is needed with a bios key though.

[KevinB]

I seem to recall reading somewhere that the DfE devices embedded keys were only Home versions, an a MAK key or KMS is needed for any other versions. I can't remember where I read this so I may be dreaming, but try a Home image and if that activates then there's your reason.

[andyt57]

I seem to recall reading somewhere that the DfE devices embedded keys were only Home versions, an a MAK key or KMS is needed for any other versions. I can't remember where I read this so I may be dreaming, but try a Home image and if that activates then there's your reason.

But the silver sticker on the base says Microsoft Windows for Education. Bring back proper licence key stickers!

 

Andy

[robjduk]

 

How can I get Windows to activate, or should I just throw it in the bin?

 

Andy

 

 

Sure you were joking but if its no use, pass it onto another school. Lots of students out there without access to computers at home and would mean the world to them.

[Koldov]

One of my schools has been issued with 4 Lenovo 100e 2nd Gen Windows laptops. They are pretty hopeless, with a 1.1GHz Celeron N4120, 4Gb RAM and a 57.6Gb drive.

 

Anyway I wiped one and installed Windows 10 Education 21H2. Despite having a Microsoft Windows for Education sticker underneath Windows is not activated and it's complaining that it can't connect to an activation server.

 

What was on it before? Seems like the sort of spec for a Chromebook... did they really send those out with Windows 10 on them?

 

The school does not have a Microsoft Licensing agreement so I do not have access to a MAK key.

 

Is that even a thing... do many schools not have MS licensing? What servers do they run? Are they just using embedded/license stickers/OEM for clients?

 

How can I get Windows to activate, or should I just throw it in the bin?

 

Personally I think that is going to painful for a full fat Windows.

[LeMarchand]

IIRC some of the DfE ones we had turned out to have Windows 10 S "baked in", which was an extra step after installing EDU to take care of. Luckily we have a volume license agreement!

[andyt57]

Sure you were joking but if its no use, pass it onto another school. Lots of students out there without access to computers at home and would mean the world to them.

 

Whenever parents complain about accessing Google Classroom on a phone or tablet we offer to loan them a Chromebook - but very few of them take it up.

 

One family did, and we later found that they had sold it on for drugs.

 

Andy

[andyt57]

What was on it before? Seems like the sort of spec for a Chromebook... did they really send those out with Windows 10 on them?

Yes, they did. See 100e laptop (2nd Gen) | 11" Windows device for students | Lenovo UK

 

Is that even a thing... do many schools not have MS licensing? What servers do they run? Are they just using embedded/license stickers/OEM for clients?

 

I just took over the school 6 months ago and they are in a right state. They are buying Office 365 for Education A3 for the teachers and admin staff, and use A1 free for everyone else. So staff login with their email address. And each device is registered with its own licence key. There is an old server running Windows Server 2012, but it's only used as a print and file server. When I first checked it there we over 2 years of updates to be installed. But they don't store their data there, they store it on Google Drive! That's because they are part of an Academy which said that they must use Google Classroom during the lockdown instead of Microsoft Teams, which would have been more logical. Oh, and they had an influx of Chromebooks from the Academy and DFE but the old wifi system can't cope.

[Koldov]

I only did a light google skim so I'm not sure this has any relevance if A3 is available?

 

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/partner-center/upgrade-windows-to-education

 

Seems like it will be a fair bit of effort though...

 

Edit: The spec on the Lenovo web page wouldn't be too bad:

 

Processor Up to Intel® Celeron® quad-core N4100

Operating System Windows 10 Pro

Display 11.6" HD TN antiglare (1366 x 768)

Memory Up to 4GB

Storage Up to 128GB eMMC & M.2 SSD

 

Shame the made for DfE ones look like glorified web browsers...

Edited March 11, 2022 by Koldov

[MrEprise]

If for any reason you need to re-install Windows and want it to re-activate against the supplied OEM license, I found that I had to use RWEverything to retrieve the OEM key from the BIOS/UEFI and then select the "Change product key" option then enter that key in when activating, which usually works.

 

It's a bit of a faff, but Windows by default seems to look for KMS servers instead of the BIOS's SLIC table for the OEM key.

[andyt57]

If for any reason you need to re-install Windows and want it to re-activate against the supplied OEM license, I found that I had to use RWEverything to retrieve the OEM key from the BIOS/UEFI and then select the "Change product key" option then enter that key in when activating, which usually works.

 

It's a bit of a faff, but Windows by default seems to look for KMS servers instead of the BIOS's SLIC table for the OEM key.

 

That worked! Thanks very much. RWEverying portable is definitely going on my USB stick!

 

Andy

[tmoon-mint]

Have you tried Windows 10 Pro Education? Its a different version to Education and I think its one OEMs use.