Dell OEM license

[nave 0]

Hello Everyone,

I need an answer to simple question , I'm in a process to implement MDT into my organization , in the organization we have dell latitude laptops that comes with OEM license , From my understanding the OEM license is stored on the bios of the computers. (correct me if I'm wrong)

1) Do I need to use the OEM task sequence in the MDT ?

2) How can I take the OEM license from the laptop bios and use it on the same laptop ?

I just want to use the OEM license for the same laptop he comes with it  , I know that this is possible but I'm not sure how to do it.


 

Edited October 19, 2018 by nave

[Stonywall 0]

Will assume Windows 10 Professional, okay...?

The BIOS OEM Windows 10 (or other OS) embedded license will automatically activate an OEM or Retail version of the same OS on that computer when installed.

You can deploy Windows 10 Retail from MDT and after it installs and reboots, the OS will check the BIOS for the key and retrieve activation authorization from the Microsoft license servers.
I am currently doing this type of deployment for a couple clients and it's working well.

This also works for computers that have been "upgraded" to Windows 10 from another OS.  As long as the BIOS contains the embedded license for the upgraded OS (like Windows 8 ) it will work.  If the computer was not "upgraded", it will not activate when you install Windows 10 on it.

Then there is something else called Windows reimaging rights... (link) but that's another long discussion and likely not needed for your deployment scenario.

The key to making it work is you HAVE to match the OS version that was installed. If you had Windows 10 Home Installed, then you have to deploy that OS version. If you had Windows 10 Professional installed, that is the OS you have to deploy.

You can usually get recovery media, that you can import into MDT from the manufacturer's support site, or from other "sources" on the internet.
Note: The Windows Media Creation Tool from Microsoft doesn't contain an Install.WIM file, it has an Install.ESD instead which cannot be imported into MDT.  You would need to convert the ESD to a WIM first. (recommend no compression if converting...)

Hope this helps you out.

[nave 0]

Thank you so much !!!

Yes I need to deploy windows 10 Pro , I'm aware to the install.esd file and already convert him to install.wim with the DISM.EXE tool.

I have another question if you could answer please:
I have read the the best practices is to the deployment share is to have it on other drive and not on the operating system drive but I already created my deployment share on the C:\ drive , should I reinstall or can I change the deployment share without reinstalling ?