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I hope I just don't know what I'm looking at but
I do not notice a W10 Key anywhere on or in the dvd envelope
or the insert or the dvd.

There is a sticker you are suppose to peel off and stick on the pc.
But certainly no W10 key there either.

Before I complain to Amazon I want to make sure that I was actually ripped off
and not just missing something here.

Thanks,
jmc2

There should be a key on the front blue envelope. Even if that actual key was removed, there is a piece of sticker border around the actual COA. That portion will literally tell you that itself isn't a COA . So if you see that portion saying that, then someone stole it.

Here is a picture of a COA removed.

https://imgur.com/a/UBqHo

Welch wrote:

There should be a key on the front blue envelope. Even if that actual key was removed, there is a piece of sticker border around the actual COA. That portion will literally tell you that itself isn't a COA . So if you see that portion saying that, then someone stole it.

Here is a picture of a COA removed.

https://imgur.com/a/UBqHo

Thank you so much for that picture!
I do have the peel off sticker and when I studied it again
I noticed a possible letter of a key at the edge of a silver square.

It was a "scratch off". I've never seen that before ever. Wow.
All my previous keys were always right there, bold and plain
inside the package.

Thanks again!

jmc2 wrote:

It was a "scratch off". I've never seen that before ever. Wow.
All my previous keys were always right there, bold and plain
inside the package.

Haven't seen that one yet but not surprised. Microsoft has the Win10 keys locked quite tightly to the hardware profile now, and OEM shipments come with it etched into the UEFI somewhere. Not much reason for CoA stickers anymore.

Ahhh yeah that must be new. I've seen a variety of Win 7/10 stickers. They always try to stay ahead of counter-fitting operations and people using them for resale.

Like Ludi said, they really entrench licenses into the hardware profiles now. So the chances of someone being able to migrate those over to another machine is pretty much nil now.