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Do I seriously have to re-install Windows?

Blucyrik
By Blucyrik
in Windows
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Hey guys,

 

Long story, but I thought I could activate Windows 10 Pro with an old Windows 7 Pro key I found in one of my files on my old computer. Apparently that isn't the case if you do a fresh install of Windows 10 (Windows 7 has never been installed on this machine, so Win 10 can't activate with a Win 7 key)

 

Is my logic correct? Do I seriously have to re-install Windows...? This time from a Windows 7 Pro disc? (Which I don't have btw)

Want to build yourself a NAS? Check here!

 

 

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5 minutes ago, Blucyrik said:

Hey guys,

 

Long story, but I thought I could activate Windows 10 Pro with an old Windows 7 Pro key I found in one of my files on my old computer. Apparently that isn't the case if you do a fresh install of Windows 10 (Windows 7 has never been installed on this machine, so Win 10 can't activate with a Win 7 key)

 

Is my logic correct? Do I seriously have to re-install Windows...? This time from a Windows 7 Pro disc? (Which I don't have btw)

If you install all available Windows updates, one of the most recent ones allows older keys.

https://www.thurrott.com/windows/windows-10/6815/microsoft-will-now-let-windows-10-upgraders-use-windows-7-8-or-8-1-product-key-to-activate

 Almost as cool as my temps  

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Yes, I believe there are Win10 ISO's that accept your Win7 key now but I wouldn't know where to find them (please use some place official) and if they're "Insider" or not.

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you can activate windows 10 with windows 7 and 8 keys

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2 minutes ago, Benergy said:

If you install all available Windows updates, one of the most recent ones allows older keys.

https://www.thurrott.com/windows/windows-10/6815/microsoft-will-now-let-windows-10-upgraders-use-windows-7-8-or-8-1-product-key-to-activate

I just read the article, and at the bottom it says this:

" But it completely bypasses the point of the free Windows 10 upgrade, which isn’t to give you a free copy of Windows 10 for a previous Windows license you never used. It’s to upgrade existing, in-use PCs to Windows 10. "

 

If this is correct, I can't simply use a Windows 7 key because this system hasn't had an older version of Windows on it.

Want to build yourself a NAS? Check here!

 

 

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1 minute ago, Blucyrik said:

I just read the article, and at the bottom it says this:

" But it completely bypasses the point of the free Windows 10 upgrade, which isn’t to give you a free copy of Windows 10 for a previous Windows license you never used. It’s to upgrade existing, in-use PCs to Windows 10. "

 

If this is correct, I can't simply use a Windows 7 key because this system hasn't had an older version of Windows on it.

I input a Windows 7 Professional key to Windows 10 Pro and it said it couldn't activate, then after update (1511 is it?) it activated itself.

Try it out, what have you got to lose :)

 Almost as cool as my temps  

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1 minute ago, Benergy said:

I input a Windows 7 Professional key to Windows 10 Pro and it said it couldn't activate, then after update (1511 is it?) it activated itself.

Try it out, what have you got to lose :)

I will, thank you all for helping me on this :)

Want to build yourself a NAS? Check here!

 

 

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Wow. Ok. This is weird.

 

So I used slmgr -dli to find which product key was being used and it came back with the GENERIC key of " VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T"

 

The code above is what I entered into a PID.txt file on the usb stick I used to install Windows 10 Pro. Basically what this code does is force the Windows files on the usb stick to install Windows 10 Pro... since Windows 10 Home and Pro are separate editions but use the same core files, Microsoft chose to combine the two versions together (which is why if you use the Media Creation Tool there's no "Home" and "Pro" editions you can download).

 

It's possible I could be stuck with this code, as I've tried changing it via command prompt in administrator mode and such. Still no change.

 

I may have completely screwed myself over lol. Oh and one more thing... the Windows 7 Pro code I found might be an OEM code... which makes sense since I can't download any Windows 7 ISO files from Microsoft's site. I enter the product key to start the download but it just comes back with an "Error" message. That's it.

 

Would it be worth trying to call Microsoft on this one to see if they can fix this problem with the product key? Or am I SOL?

Want to build yourself a NAS? Check here!

 

 

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