On Mon, 04 Apr 2016 13:54:51 -0400, wrote:

The Vista Business sticker looks like the original -
the Win 8 was installed by a previous owner -
no disks came with the computer - it was a private sale.
... if I had the stuff you ask about - I doubt that I would
be asking, here, for a work-around - right ?
but thanks for the reply - any help is appreciated.
John T.

It means you have a bad product key. You need a Win 8 product key. The
Vista key will not work, or activate and authenticate at MSFT online.

I very much doubt you could get Win10 free without a valid Win8
product key, either.