this post was submitted on 16 Apr 2024
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I use Arch btw

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Greatest satisfaction (lemmy.world)
submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (2 children)

I recently found out that these keys are nowadays embedded in the BIOS. The following command will retrieve it:

sudo strings /sys/firmware/acpi/tables/MSDM

This works even if you nuked Windows and installed Linux. Do note that this key will be locked to that particular hardware; you could reinstall Win on that specific computer, but you can't use that key to activate Win on a different machine.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

I had no idea you could dump it from Linux.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

So I did this. I nuked Windows when I bought a new laptop. About a year later I changed jobs and now needed to use Visual Studio. Now I know why Windows never hassled me for a key when I reinstalled...