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Dell Optiplex 7040 SFF: Windows or Linux (alien.top)

submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Hello r/homelab,

I just picked up some Dell Optiplex 7040 SFF (8 of them) and they all came with a clean install of Windows 10 Pro. My plan was to run PiHole, nginx for reverse proxy, and some game servers. I wanted to get more familiar with Linux running on these machines but it feels like a waste to throw away Windows 10 Pro subscriptions. What would you do? Keep a subset running Windows and others Linux or would that be more of a hassle than it would be worth?

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

When you say "throw away Windows 10 Pro subscriptions", what do you mean exactly? Do you mean just not using them (by running Linux instead), or do you think if you install Linux you'll lose the licenses?

If the latter, the activation/product key is (usually) stored in the firmware of the machine, so you can reinstall Windows in the future and it'll automagically be activated with Windows 10 Pro again (you don't even have to input the product key). To check, follow this guide, and run this command in an Administrator-level PowerShell:

wmic path softwarelicensingservice get OA3xOriginalProductKey

If the command returns the product key then you're good to go.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Ah okay. I was able to grab the product key so I can always go back. Didn't realize it'd be that simple! Thanks for the advice!