I know that if I run sysprep, the OOBE will look in the BIOS for a product key. However since space is a big issue with my current build, I do not want to boot up my image. Is there a way to tell the OOBE on a fresly applied image to look in the BIOS for the key?
So if I restore a factory image and go into audit mode will I find the correct key or is it too late at that point? (I need a generic key for Windows 8.1 with Bing and Google isn't helping.) I found the following quote but don't know its original source:
Search for BY36R, Bing key will be found. You can inject this key offline into your install.wim, use it in an autounattend.xml or you can manually use "slmgr /ipk YourKey" at any time. Once you go though oobe you'll see windows has read & is using the msdm key...
I had seen that key before but didn't realize it was an OEM_DM key. I restored the factory image and when I went into audit mode the factory key had already been replaced with my MSDM key. I used SLMGR to replace my key with the BY36R key it stayed for a few boots but as soon as I let sysprep boot to the OOBE, my MSDM key got installed. I'm going to install that key with DISM and see what happens. (I had thought that key was already in the WIM from MS but I'll have to recheck this.) The conclusion I'm coming to is that the factory technicians can enter Audit mode in any PC and recapture the image, and the "factory key" I was searching for is just the MSDM key from the last PC the image was captured from. Is this correct?
When the image is 1st created & captured it has the manufacturing oem-dm key. Once this image is deployed, the systems are then tested. If they pass they then get a unique oem-dm key injected & are shutdown. So, all the recovery install.wim's use these keys...
I was wrong about the key in the WIM. The key there is the Retail key CWD6W. changing the key to BY36R in audit mode made it find the MSDM key. Now it's time to inject that key into the WIM. If successful I'll modify my build scripts and rebuild from the original WIM. I think the OEM that build my machine just applies the current image to new models, add drivers and updates and recaptures the image as their new base image. By the time my system was built the unique key was long gone.
Thanks. It worked and I now have a working 2.5GB (clean, never booted) WIMBoot image to replace a bloated 5.2GB image. On a 16GB tablet the extra 2.7GB makes a big difference. Now to figure out why the cameras don't work, but that's for another thread.