Re: [Trisquel-users] Does windows 10 put data on your mainboard?
Yes. If you laptop or PC came with Win 8.x/10 preinstalled, there's no key. It's in the UEFI or BIOS, embedded.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Does windows 10 put data on your mainboard?
> checked against the server hash to make sure the motherboard has not been changed when it would be a new computer. This is true. If you change too much about your computer more than 4 times, Windows locks up and won't run.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Does windows 10 put data on your mainboard?
There's no product key or license key with new OEM preinstalled Windows systems that is known to the user. There are programs that generate a key based on the BIOS string but it's of no use even if you get it. There's no sticker. It's a string in the BIOS that the installer is looking for. No string found, it will prompt for a retail key or if a generic key was used, it will ask for a new valid key. The BIOS string makes it possible to reinstall any time without a key and activate without an internet connection. A retail license, once installed, will need no key for later reinstallations, but its validity is checked against a registration server key, so the user must go online.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Does windows 10 put data on your mainboard?
I would guess yes, so if you are better off steering way clear of anything windows especially anything new and modern...
Re: [Trisquel-users] Does windows 10 put data on your mainboard?
The so-called license on new Windows computers with it pre-installed store the key in the BIOS so people could not sell the license key after they get a new computer. However buying it at retail will not do this unless the Windows installer uses some (even worse) toxic magic. The BIOS is proprietary though so the question is not what Microsoft can do to your mainboard but what Intel can do with their omnipotent spying engine and handy remotely exploitable backdoor: https://libreboot.org/faq/#intelme If MS could actually modify the firmware (rather than manufacturer developing BIOS and including the key) this would be a good thing because it could possibly be reversed-engineered so Libreboot developers could modify the BIOS!
Re: [Trisquel-users] Does windows 10 put data on your mainboard?
The notebook that came with windows 8 has no license key? In the bios there is windows data and the installation verifies that. Then windows knows that windows has been paid for? And it can activate windows 8 without internet? If you activate windows, doesn't windows put data on the mainboard, encryption keys, anything else, in the bios, the uefi, the tpm? You say, when you buy a computer which has a windows 8 or 10 license, the only windows data is in the bios? If you buy a computer that comes without any windows, there is no windows data and not in the bios either? Then after you activate a license key, do we know if windows puts windows data in the bios, uefi, tpm or else? Because there is windows data in my notebook's bios, maybe I should install windows 7 on the notebook in order to test windows 10.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Does windows 10 put data on your mainboard?
I don't think it's anything that was added by Windows. The BIOS string is there because the manufacturer (OEM) added it there. All BIOS flash ROMs from the OEM are likely to add that string back if it was there in the first place. You'd need a completely free BIOS ROM (LibreBoot). Retail Windows installations do not use the string in the BIOS. They send a hashed ID made from the motherboad serial numbers. They are unique to each machine and they are stored not on the computer but on MS activation servers.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Does windows 10 put data on your mainboard?
Can't you just flash the bios to get rid of anything windows added?
