Find Windows version for reinstall.

Question

Good  day,

After  having  all  attempts  at  restoring  windows10  crashed  laptop,

I  have decided  to  reinstall  WINDOWS10 on  a  new  HDD  on  the  same  lapto     

I  expect  the  licence  to  get  activated  automatically.

Now  for  that  to  happen, : I  need  to  know  which  version  of  windows  was  originally on the  laptop.  

It was home  edition  but  I  don't  know  if  it  was  EN-US  or  EN-international  

How  do  I  find  this  ? I  CANNOT  BOOT  into  windows. Here  is  the  old  thread  about the issue I  faced.

Second  query: what  about  my  MS  office  License. Will  that  renew  on  its  own?

Answer 1

You still might want to contact Dell, their support team was kind enough to send me a flash drive for a very out of warranty Dell Venue 8 pro years after it went out of support.

Or installing Windows directly from the Microsoft website, using a USB stick, could be a great alternative.

Although I sure wouldn't expect Office 2010 to function well.

Answer 2

Dell  website  says  they  don't  have  copy  of  the  windows  installed  on  my laptop,

I  checked  that  by  inputting  the   dell  tag  number. (Maybe  because  it  originally came  with  windows  8, which was then  upgraded  to  8.1 and  then  10 (it's  old). It's  out  of  warranty  as  well  :(

Office  I  believe  was  2010, some  folk  say  that  this  version  is  not  able  to  be  re  installed   as  it  was  a  one  time  thing  from  DELL.

IF  I  image  the  C:  drive  ( and  restore  it  to  a  new  HDD, Which  has  got  the  new   windows  installed  on  it, will  it  work  ?  The  old  software  ? )

Answer 3

If the computer came with Windows 10 preinstalled at the factory, you don't need to even know. Computers certified for Windows 10 have the product information embedded into the system and you can just reinstall (even on a blank new hard drive).  This is why Windows 10 computers don't come with those stickers of product key codes on them like old computers did.

Although this does mean that you may need to acquire the recovery image (install files) directly from the manufacturer. Dell for example, will happily send you a Dell-branded USB stick loaded with their particular OEM version of Windows 10.

Office can simply be reinstalled from Office.com (after you login to your Office account, you can download it from the top right corner).