Activating Windows 10 upgrades

[Vertigo]

With the deadline for free upgrades only a month or so away...

I have three computers with full retail Windows 7 Home Premium licences on them. I don't want to upgrade any of these machines to Windows 10 right now but may do in the future.

I've thus been thinking. As the current Windows 10 installation allows a Windows 7 key to be entered, could I simply install a fresh copy of 10 onto a test machine and enter the 7 product key, then wipe and repeat for each of the three licences?

Presumably this would register each 7 key as upgraded to 10 so I could then later upgrade or reinstall any of those three machines? Also, as they're all full retail licences, would the original machines still activate even though the original install was done on a different, test machine?

Ta for any info

 

[andicole0]

W10 is hardware registered so you would need to upgrade each pc to W10 and activate it, then return to W7. Future return to W10 should then be fine. I think I would be inclined to do the W10 upgrade and stay with it.
Andi.

 

[joey1211]

You can...

1) make an image of the 7 installation, upgrade to 10 and then put the image you created back
2) install 10 and then fresh install 7
3) install 10 and use the roll back feature in 10 to revert back to your 7 installation (this does not always work)

Any of these means you will have reserved your 10 upgrade to a later date. I think you only have a month to roll back, otherwise you are stuck with 10.

I was planning on doing the same last weekend but other things cropped up.

 

[Banzai_Joe]

yeah, you have to upgrade 7 to 10, before you can do a fresh install of 10 using the same hardware, otherwise it fails activation.
Despite the usual trolling of microsoft when 10 was released, it actually IS a good OS. I can't see any reason for NOT upgrading really, unless of course your hardware is that old that it won't function properly with 10 installed.

 

[Vertigo]

Thanks for the replies but why do I need to do the upgrade on the same machine? Surely, as they're retail licences, I can do the install on a test machine and then it would work later on the original machine just as if I'd upgraded the original and then replace it with a new PC later?

 

[andicole0]

W10 doesn't have a key as such, it's locked to the hardware. The W7 upgrade works on the W7 key but then locks W10 to the hardware. If the hardware isn't registered before the free upgrade ends the W7 key will no longer enable a W10 install. So you have to activate W10 on all your hardware separately. W10 is not going to be transferable to new hardware. Although that may change.
Andi.

 

[IT Troll]

As others have said each Win 10 free upgrade is hardware locked (to motherboard). However as you said you can now do a fresh install of 10 using a 7/8 key so long as the key is currently activated on that hardware for 7/8.

So if you have a spare disk you can disconnect your Win 7/8 drive, perform a fresh install of 10 on the spare drive, then swap your Win 7/8 drive back in. No need to image or upgrade and roll back. Unfortunately you will need to do this on each computer to register the upgrade against the motherboard.

 

[rossiboy001]

Reading this, as I was thinking of upgrading my stem, new MB and CPU ect. However if I put w10 upgrade on my current board from my W7 retail key to 8-8.1 Upgrade path. this will now tie my W10 to existing MB as a sort of OEM. So therefore no good for my upgrade new MB and i would need to buy a new OS pack as even by then (1 month) it will be locked to make my W7 Retail key obsolete?

 

[IT Troll]

Yes that it the situation.

Best option, if you can, is to activate Win 10 on the final hardware before the end of the month.

Failing that it is still worth claiming and activating Win 10 on whatever you have now. You may be able to convince MS Support to reactivate on new hardware after the cut off. This is unknown at this stage but it would be better to be in this situation rather than not claim the offer at all.

 

[feriso]

What about using VMs and then reinstalling? The upgrade should be OK for use on another VM?

 

[Hagar]

Yes that it the situation.

Best option, if you can, is to activate Win 10 on the final hardware before the end of the month.

Failing that it is still worth claiming and activating Win 10 on whatever you have now. You may be able to convince MS Support to reactivate on new hardware after the cut off. This is unknown at this stage but it would be better to be in this situation rather than not claim the offer at all.

I have changed motherboards this week on a win 10 pro install (orig. win 7 ultimate retail) with no activation issues.

Now I have just carried out a win 10 clean installation on the new hardware using my win 7 key which activated immediately online.

 

[Vertigo]

Why is everyone going on about Win10 being "locked to the hardware".

My Windows 7 licences are retail ones, so I'm entitled to the same when I upgrade to Windows 10. There was a lot of speculation about this initially but Microsoft did confirm that the free upgrade would retain "retail status" and thus you'd be entitled to re-install Windows 10 on a new machine later if you replaced or upgraded it. As that's effectively what I'd be doing, I don't see that there'd be a problem.

 

[Glaucus]

Why is everyone going on about Win10 being "locked to the hardware".

no idea people have been saying such nonsense since before w10 released.

I had win 7 and win 8 retail license that have all taken w10 upgrade license and all have worked fine on multiple machines.

if you have an activation issue, talk to MS. which other people have had to do.

is It Troll actually a troll. or just clueless.

 

[jpaul]

ok red rag to a bull.

Threads on OC suggest all free upgrade 10 licenses will be hardware locked, I could not find any definitive MS documentation, but howtogeeek site is reasonably reliable ?

and of course after the end of July maybe the music stops and you can no longer move such win 10 licenses even if you succeeded so far ?
UPDATE I should have read end of article I linked - it says as much

I am about to upgrade several laptops and if they will be portable this would simplify my task

 

[Glaucus]

reliable source probably not, as most articles you read are very old and where all posted on a bandwagon that should never have existed.

they are not locked to hardware, they simply use a hardware id to auto activate when w10 was first released.
since the last big update, you can also just install it using w7/w8.1 key and It'll activate that way.

and with the anniversary update even fewer people will have activation issues, as you can now tie it to your Microsoft account.

 

[jpaul]

where is a reliable source do the T&C's say something ?

I will be just updating using the w7 oem and retail keys I have, as you say.

... but why do you think transfers will necessarily work after July 29th ?

 

[jpaul]

small addendum (I will dig a bigger hole) MS have a big database that says this hardware (some key based on MB version and other hardware) is authorised so it is locked

 

[Glaucus]

small addendum (I will dig a bigger hole) MS have a big database that says this hardware (some key based on MB version and other hardware) is authorised so it is locked

its not locked, many people have phoned up MS and changed hardware, as your own article says.
for the rest of us it simply hasn't been an issue.

if it had been locked then a phone call would solve the issue.

http://www.winbuzzer.com/2016/06/24...on-digital-license-anniversary-update-xcxwbn/

 

[jpaul]

but all bets are off after 29th ? (even though they currently succeed)

 

[Glaucus]

but all bets are off after 29th ? (even though they currently succeed)

Then why bother making the changes to the activation process in the anibersery update.

Why have ms support guve n out w10 retail licenses for those having activation issues that support haven't been able to solve..

Your stance rraly isn't based on anything. Just like how the bandwagon started.