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Windows 10 Product Activation

bobman279
By bobman279
in Windows
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At the moment I looking to buy a retail copy of windows 10.

If i buy it in another country e.g. UK/England will the key activate in Australia?

Please don't mention the free windows 10 upgrade as I am planning to build a new pc but it won't be in the free activation/upgrade period.

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https://linustechtips.com/topic/605332-windows-10-product-activation/
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Posted
3 hours ago, bobman279 said:

At the moment I looking to buy a retail copy of windows 10.

If i buy it in another country e.g. UK/England will the key activate in Australia?

Please don't mention the free windows 10 upgrade as I am planning to build a new pc but it won't be in the free activation/upgrade period.

It should activate fine. If not people that travel a lot or for extended time (several months) will be in trouble, as Windows check activation every now and then to make sure that there is only 1 user with the key. Back in the old days, the only issue it would be language... but even if that is still the case today, I think English U.S, English Canada, English Australia, and English United Kingdom is pretty much the same. I think you'll be able to live with: "color" being spelled "colour", or the reverse from where you are. But that would be back then, TODAY, well, since Windows 8, you can change system language. Windows will download the language, and set it. If I am not mistaken, you can make it that each account has a different language if you want (I never tried it, don't quote me on that).

 

So, all in all, you should be good.

 

Please note that I have not tried this myself, and cannot guaranty it will work, but I really don't see why it should not work.

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12 hours ago, Lord_Doge said:

Microsoft will most likely extend the free upgrade. If not you can always do the free upgrade now and use software to find the new windows 10 key. Then you can just do a fresh install of windows 10 with the key you got

 

Link to ProduKey for recovering license key

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html#DownloadLinks

You do not get a Windows 10 key when taking the free upgrade offer. It is a generic key that will not activate.

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4 minutes ago, Lord_Doge said:

Are you sure? because it worked for me about 8 months ago.... Maybe they patched it

Very sure. The way it works is that based on your hardware, mostly motherboard, it generates a key which is stored on Microsoft servers. When you re-install Windows 10, it rechecks you hardware generated key with what it has on the servers. If there is a match, than it activates.

 

So, if you plan to upgrade your computer, do it before July 29th, if not Windows 10 will not activate.

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1 minute ago, GoodBytes said:

Very sure. The way it works is that based on your hardware, mostly motherboard, it generates a key which is stored on Microsoft servers. When you re-install Windows 10, it rechecks you hardware generated key with what it has on the servers. If there is a match, than it activates.

 

So, if you plan to upgrade your computer, do it before July 29th, if not Windows 10 will not activate.

That makes sense why clean installs work on the same system. Do you know if you can install windows 7 with the original key on a different system and then upgrade to 10?

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4 minutes ago, Lord_Doge said:

That makes sense why clean installs work on the same system. Do you know if you can install windows 7 with the original key on a different system and then upgrade to 10?

If that would work, then people would upgrade entire companies out of 1 license.

If you have Windows 7 Retail license, then you can transfer to another system, as long as you have 1 system on Windows with that key.

Any other licenses, are locked to the motherboard it is installed onto.

 

 

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1 minute ago, GoodBytes said:

If that would work, then people would upgrade entire companies out of 1 license.

If you have Windows 7 Retail license, then you can transfer to another system, as long as you have 1 system on Windows with that key.

Any other licenses, are locked to the motherboard it is installed onto.

 

 

I wasn't assuming the first computer wouldn't be invalidated I was just wonder if there was a way to upgrade your hardware without having to buy a new license.

 

So to be clear, if you have upgraded to windows 10 there isn't any way to transfer it even if you use the original win 7/8 key and upgrade again?

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1 hour ago, Lord_Doge said:

So to be clear, if you have upgraded to windows 10 there isn't any way to transfer it even if you use the original win 7/8 key and upgrade again?

Ah ok.

So far, because we can only go with what we know, yes you can, but you need to do it before July 29.

Microsoft shared no details that will happen after July 29.

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