back in the day computers used to ship with copies of the OS

>>60596128
Most laptops have a recovery partition to reinstall the factory OS

>>60596153

since i plan on wiping the entire drive, can i copy that partition to a usb stick and reinstall from the stick later?

>>60596128
Download the Windows 10 ISO off the MS website, burn it to a CD or Flash Drive and go from there.
You don't need a serial number, but you will need an internet connection to activate Windows (the key is in your UEFI, you don't need to enter anything, click skip when Windows 10 install asks - it only asks so if you have a better key (ie laptop came with standard but you have a Pro key) you can enter it there)

>>60596128
You can create a USB media for Windows 10 for free, and install it on any win10 licensed hardware.

Gone are the days when people only had one PC, and required physical media.

>>60596223
Just get the Windows 10 iso off MS website.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

thanks
op

>>60596128
1. OEM keys are in UEFI now and the installation will pick it up automatically.
2. you can download the ISO from >>60596246

There's a small catch with that website, though. If your browser user agent is Windows, you get redirected to page with a downloader that will download the files and make a bootable medium out of them. If you have a Mac or Linux user agent, you get redirected to a page where you can download the plain ISO.

You can download the media creation tool for win 10 right of the MS website.

>download Windows 10
>enter serial if needed

That's why the product key label is still somewhere on the machine you retarded brainlet.

>>60596366
>implying OEM product keys can be used to install retail copies

>>60596128
>how?
piracy

>>60596128
Download it from Microsoft's website, you dumb fuck.
Your product key is inside some ACPI table. Sometimes it's not a product key but just a signed blob of horseshit with the signing keys of each major OEM being signed by MS and Windows containing the master signing public key to verify the chain.

>>60596128
>back in the day computers used to ship with copies of the OS on CDs
lol youngfag

>>60596128
by not being retarded
sorry op

>>60596128
bootable usb

The Windows ISO is on download from the Microsoft site, but you'll need a product key

burn it on the a USB drive, then boot from it

>>60598443
You need a product key to download Windows 7. No such restriction is in place for 10.

>>60596333
>user agent voodoo
Typical Microsoft, typical

File: one_of_five.png (730KB, 653x687px) Image search: [Google]

730KB, 653x687px

>>60597534
resistance is futile

>>60596153
If you use the recovery partition, you still get the crapware