HP Omni/Re-installation, licensing

slyronit

New Member
Messages
5
Hello,

I recently got an HP Omni 10 tablet. It came pre-installed with Windows 8.1 (I think its the base/core edition), as well as Office Home and Student.

Now, I am not much fond of manufacturer bloatware, so I would like to fresh install windows from scratch (Using a USB hub and mouse/keyboard during setup). The tablet came with a memory card, which doesn't have a Windows setup, but just re-images the system partition and applies the HP image. Assuming I have all the required drivers and I want to keep this all legal and use my existing licenses, my questions are

1. Is the Windows Core edition ISO available anywhere? I am OK downloading from torrent sites, it won't be illegal as I am using my valid license.
2. Will the Windows installer automatically get the product key from the EFI BIOS, or should I use a tool to get the Product key from registry? I don't see the product key mentioned anywhere on the Box or the tablet.
3. Is the Office Home and Student ISO/ installer available anywhere? I have the key for this.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
Question 1) Create installation media for Windows 8.1 - Windows Help

Question 2) Yes

Question 3) https://officesetup.getmicrosoftkey.com/


Now with that said, you may be setting yourself up for problems.. On some tablets with such small storage drives they use a different method of installation, then you are per posing..

First, go into control panel, recovery, create recovery media.. This will allow you to do a Bare Metal Reset of the factory images..

Second, after you create that media, browse through the files on that USB, you are looking for file name(s) - custom.wim - install.wim they may be in an *Images folder and you may find winre.wim in a *Recovery Folder

If they are present, most likely your system is using Wimboot images and you'll be screwing yourself later - if you re-install windows yourself..

I am not saying it is not possible to do, it is somewhat a process to do..

Let us know what you find out..
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 3.1 > Windows 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS 8700
    CPU
    I7
    Memory
    24 GB
Question 1) Create installation media for Windows 8.1 - Windows Help

Question 2) Yes

Question 3) https://officesetup.getmicrosoftkey.com/


Now with that said, you may be setting yourself up for problems.. On some tablets with such small storage drives they use a different method of installation, then you are per posing..

First, go into control panel, recovery, create recovery media.. This will allow you to do a Bare Metal Reset of the factory images..

Second, after you create that media, browse through the files on that USB, you are looking for file name(s) - custom.wim - install.wim they may be in an *Images folder and you may find winre.wim in a *Recovery Folder

If they are present, most likely your system is using Wimboot images and you'll be screwing yourself later - if you re-install windows yourself..

I am not saying it is not possible to do, it is somewhat a process to do..

Let us know what you find out..

Thanks. That was immensely helpful.

I am aware what WIMBoot is, no this tablet doesn't have it (around 20Gb used by windows installation on a clean install, WimBoot installations are only a few Gbs).

I actually thought about it and found little to no merit doing a fresh windows installation. I might do some research and try to get Windows to do WIMBoot, though, however, forums are scarce on this information for the HP Omni 10.

Thanks a tom for your help.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
Dude it is easy to convent to wimboot - I even have a script to do so..

here is MS Tech reference to Create WIMBoot Images
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 3.1 > Windows 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS 8700
    CPU
    I7
    Memory
    24 GB
I had to get one from dell for my tablet - because they use mini-usb
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 3.1 > Windows 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS 8700
    CPU
    I7
    Memory
    24 GB
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