If i could offer a suggestion:
I think you can log on as an administrator with the help of a win 7 boot disc. You could retrieve the the product key that way ?
It would be a good idea to do do a clean install on a drive that's been wiped w/ a three pass overwrite. There's just no way of knowing what he might have used the machine for before shipping it back to you. There could be some personal stuff or criminal activity on the drive. If it's not done by the numbers it could violate client confidentiality or make you an accomplice.
The win 7 ISO's are still freely available. Personally i've found that the software that comes directly from Microsoft is a lot easier to work with than the Mfgr's bloatware version.
It's super easy to upgrade to win 10 that way too.
Kinda does Microsoft a favor because they really need to get a lot of machines changed over to continue with their business model. It would be a shame to see it not work out and have them go under.
Afterthought:
Just remembered ... i believe there's a new way of doing things coming up in the next month or so. Was reading about it in a Forbes article the other day.
In order to smooth out the upgrade process Microsoft is going to begin allowing fresh Win 10 ISO installations with any valid win 7 or win 8 product key. ( No more wasting time with upgrades. )
That should help make things easier on everybody and help them reach their goal of having win 10 installed on a billion machines by the end of their free upgrade offer.
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