The way it was first explained to me, someone asked me if I remembered how desktops used to have those windows activation stickers on them, and now often they don’t. It’s because they’re programmed into the motherboard.
There are command prompt and powershell commands you can run that will only produce results if the key is embedded.
For anecdotal evidence about these specific machines, I’ve removed the 500gb HDD while installing a brand new NVME ssd and didn’t have to activate windows on a clean install via USB.
If you want more, try the HP 290-p0043w Owner’s Thread someone in there may be able to give you a more official answer.
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