So I purchased a new laptop a while back and it already had Windows 8 installed and set up. I'd been using it perfectly fine since. Recently it's been bugging up though and keeps telling me I need to enter a new authentication key. It's starting to get really annoying because I don't want to spend a million dollars getting a new key and since it's been so long I'm not sure what information I'd be able to provide to show that I genuinely bought the product.

Any suggestions on how I can either get a key for cheap or get my old key to work again would be helpful and I would love you forever.

 

Sometimes key number are in laptop documentation, sometimes there is a sticker with the code on laptop.

 

If it's brand new and original, check the key on the sticker at the bottom of laptop (as "bottom" I mean side where you is battery)

 

Not sure if this is helpful or not, but back when I had XP for what seemed a thousand years and I would wipe my harddrive twice yearly; apparently, I had reinstalled windows one too many times. There was a number I called and they gave me another key that let me use my old key again. Effectively resetting I think.

Maybe something similar could help here?

 

W7 is the last OS to have a grace period I guess (thanks Microsoft!), which would normally give you a month to input your registration shit. There's an application you can run from the commandline to activate your OS, some details are here:

http://tweaks.com/windows/39026/change-windows-product-key-after-install/

If that doesn't work for you, um, there are less legal things you can do from the commandline that would activate it... I'll leave the google fu and the moral conumdrum to you, however.