The location varies, but there is probably no workaround.

When I did my Toshiba Express Upgrade, the number that they wanted was
NOT the product key (e.g. not the 25-character string), but rather
another number printed on the COA. What's best would be to take a
digital photo of the COA (clear enough to read) and save that on the
computer as a JPEG file.



David Arnstein wrote:
I recently installed a Dell XPS710. I would like to obtain the
Microsoft Vista software upgrade from Dell. I used the Dell web pile
to initiate this request. I was presented with an HTML form that asked
for the Microsoft Certificate of Authenticity (COA) for the PC.

My issue is that the COA is, apparently, printed on a tag that is
attached to the computer. This computer is large and heavy, and moving
it now would be a knuckle-busting job for me.

I am looking for workarounds:

1. Is the COA printed somewhere in the paper materials that Dell sent
with the computer?

2. Can I query the COA from the PC while it is running Windows XP?

3. Is there a way to obtain the Vista upgrade from Dell without
providing a COA?

Failing the above,

4. Where exactly is the COA tag located on my XPS 710? Perhaps I can
spy it with a small mirror and flashlight.

Thanks for any suggestions!
I did manage to write down the express service code and the service
tag of the computer.