Why don’t users realize that that little sticker is actually important? More; why don’t manufacturers come up with a better place to put it on notebooks?
You keep saying you know quite a bit about computers, but I don’t think that means what you think it means. Also, it’s the product key sticker, without which you cannot activate your copy of Windows after a fresh install. It’s just another way Micro$oft sucks.
so why not use the factory recovery discs and do an online activation based on serial number? that sticker is only useful if your doing offline activation
Because more often than not the user does not have factory discs available, and factory discs take time to ship, and cost money. And just fyi, now days some Windows 8 machines don’t have factory discs as a purchasable option, or even recovery media creators out of the box. So, if you are a tech on-site and need it done day of or thereabouts, and time is money to your angry customer/boss, then you don’t have time to fool with the convoluted process of securing those factory discs. You have to have media on hand, ready to go–which means Microsoft stock OEM iso. And in this case, if you don’t have the product key, you can’t do an online activation, much less an offline activation. At that point you are Microsoft’s mercy, as you have to dial them and hope that begging for a new key works. And that routine never works with Micro$uck.
So yeah, your case works on a personal end user basis, and in fluke cases where you just luck out and the client has the discs. But as someone who has worked on thousands of Windoze machines professionally, it’s rarely that convenient in these cases.
Some vendors (e.g. Dell) have come to realise this and put the windows cdkey stickers under the battery, so they don’t get rubbed off. But yeah, I ran into this problem numerous times myself :-P.
![Every.Single.Time. [pic]](https://i0.wp.com/faildesk.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/every_damn_time.jpg?fit=655%2C485&ssl=1 "Every.Single.Time. [pic]")
I hate these
Why don’t users realize that that little sticker is actually important? More; why don’t manufacturers come up with a better place to put it on notebooks?
The object is to get the user to buy a new OS . . .
Obviously you want to offline activate the machine then. ^_^v
I know quite a bit about computers, but for some reason this I do not. What is it and why is it important?
You keep saying you know quite a bit about computers, but I don’t think that means what you think it means. Also, it’s the product key sticker, without which you cannot activate your copy of Windows after a fresh install. It’s just another way Micro$oft sucks.
so why not use the factory recovery discs and do an online activation based on serial number? that sticker is only useful if your doing offline activation
Because more often than not the user does not have factory discs available, and factory discs take time to ship, and cost money. And just fyi, now days some Windows 8 machines don’t have factory discs as a purchasable option, or even recovery media creators out of the box. So, if you are a tech on-site and need it done day of or thereabouts, and time is money to your angry customer/boss, then you don’t have time to fool with the convoluted process of securing those factory discs. You have to have media on hand, ready to go–which means Microsoft stock OEM iso. And in this case, if you don’t have the product key, you can’t do an online activation, much less an offline activation. At that point you are Microsoft’s mercy, as you have to dial them and hope that begging for a new key works. And that routine never works with Micro$uck.
So yeah, your case works on a personal end user basis, and in fluke cases where you just luck out and the client has the discs. But as someone who has worked on thousands of Windoze machines professionally, it’s rarely that convenient in these cases.
Don’t understand. Never EVER used that sticker for reinstalling any OS.
Some vendors (e.g. Dell) have come to realise this and put the windows cdkey stickers under the battery, so they don’t get rubbed off. But yeah, I ran into this problem numerous times myself :-P.
With Windows 7, this is an easy fix. Look up WAT Remover.