SMI Bios is held in a Serial Based EEPROM that also has Serial Number and Service tag and other relevant numbers like serial numbers. This information is NOT stored in BIOS or UEFI Bios. You cannot write to the SMBIOS where the encrypted key is stored only the manufacturer can do that. Microsoft specifies WMI as the preferred mechanism for accessing SMBIOS information from Microsoft Windows.In UEFI, the "SmbiosView" shell application can retrieve the SMBIOS data. Newer Dells Bios must be updated via INTEL Management Engine aka DOS does not work anymore on UEFI based systems.
System Management BIOS (SMBIOS) has a lot of information in it.
If you open an administrative DOS box window aka CMD.EXE
you can read this via WMI Commands
C:\>wmic bios get serialnumber SerialNumber ABCDEF1
C:\>wmic csproduct get vendor,name,identifyingnumber IdentifyingNumber Name Vendor ABCDEF1 Dimension XPS 8300 Dell Inc.
I don't know what SMI BIOS is (I just googled it as well but couldn't get any info lol)...I just though BIOS was BIOS...does that mean that the product key/service tag are stored separately. In other words when you update the BIOS the product key and service tag aren't touched and so cant be deleted by the BIOS update or altered in any way?
I read a few horror stories on the net where people were saying flashing the BIOS had also removed their product key...that's why I was concerned about it.
speedstep
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October 2nd, 2015 08:00
SMI Bios is held in a Serial Based EEPROM that also has Serial Number and Service tag and other relevant numbers like serial numbers. This information is NOT stored in BIOS or UEFI Bios. You cannot write to the SMBIOS where the encrypted key is stored only the manufacturer can do that. Microsoft specifies WMI as the preferred mechanism for accessing SMBIOS information from Microsoft Windows.In UEFI, the "SmbiosView" shell application can retrieve the SMBIOS data. Newer Dells Bios must be updated via INTEL Management Engine aka DOS does not work anymore on UEFI based systems.
System Management BIOS (SMBIOS) has a lot of information in it.
If you open an administrative DOS box window aka CMD.EXE
you can read this via WMI Commands
speedstep
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September 28th, 2015 11:00
Updating bios does not change windows 8 or 8.1 or 10 activation. The Key is in SMI bios with the service tag not in BOOT UEFI bios.
delboy777
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September 29th, 2015 02:00
Thanks mate for the quick reply.
I don't know what SMI BIOS is (I just googled it as well but couldn't get any info lol)...I just though BIOS was BIOS...does that mean that the product key/service tag are stored separately. In other words when you update the BIOS the product key and service tag aren't touched and so cant be deleted by the BIOS update or altered in any way?
I read a few horror stories on the net where people were saying flashing the BIOS had also removed their product key...that's why I was concerned about it.
Philip_Yip
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October 3rd, 2015 11:00
Yes you can flash your BIOS to the latest version it won't influence the product key.
delboy777
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October 7th, 2015 04:00
Thanks Philip for taking the time to reply
delboy777
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October 7th, 2015 04:00
Thanks... Speedstep...very much for explaining all that to me. Very informative...I appreciate the time and effort you put into your reply