Product Key

[PaulB]

I haven't yet been offered the Win 10 upgrade, so I'm assuming if it is done as Microsoft suggests then a product key is not an issue. However, should I eventually consider doing a clean install, what product key would I use? I would hope that I wouldn't have to reinstall Win 8 then update my way back to Win 10!

[HansV]

If you perform an in-place upgrade, Windows 10 will automatically be activated with the license key of your current version of Windows (assuming it is legit, of course )

If you perform a clean install, you'll have to provide the license key of your current version of Windows at some point to activate it.

[PaulB]

Thanks, Hans.

[StuartR]

According to this web site, if you have previously upgraded a PC to Windows 10 then you can later perform a clean install without needing a license key.

How to perform a clean installation of Windows
...
If you upgraded to Windows 10 on this PC by taking advantage of the free upgrade offer and successfully activated Windows 10 on this PC in the past, you won't have a Windows 10 product key, and you can skip the product key page by selecting the Skip button. Your PC will activate online automatically so long as the same edition of Windows 10 was successfully activated on this PC by using the free Windows 10 upgrade offer.

[PaulB]

Thanks, Stuart. It will be interesting to see how this works out.

[viking33]

So I got my Insider invitation to DL the final(?) version of Win 10. Huge DL but to be expected. I got rid of the prior versions of Insider which I had arranged to Dual Boot.
Burned the .IOS to a DVD and booted to the DVD. All looked good then up comes a screen asking me for my Product Key. I dig it out and submit it and it comes back with an error saying that it was not a valid Key and Windows was not activated? This is a good key and it was accepted by MS a long tome ago when I installed Win 7, now it's a pirate?.
So I skip that thing and proceed to finish the install. Looks OK but then up pops the nag about entering the Product Key again! Skip it again and soon it pops up again. It won't go away.
I went online and searched for the problem and there is all kinds of reasons why this is happening but no way to fix it except to BUY ANOTHER COPY OF WINDOWS 7!
You have to be kidding me!
This doesn't surprise me too much but is typical of MS to have come up with some Jackass way to validate their free OS!
A couple of "fixes" suggested were to just ignore the nag, since it seems to work without activation.
Does anyone know of a REAL way to fix this?

[Jay Freedman]

Bob, if I understand what I've read elsewhere, the (painful) solution is this: Reinstall Windows 7, using the key you have which should work. Don't bother getting any updates for it. Once it's finished the bare-bones installation, use the DVD to upgrade in place to Windows 10. This time there shouldn't be a request for the key (or, as Stuart's quote said, you can skip the request), and it should activate without reentering the key.

[viking33]

Bob, if I understand what I've read elsewhere, the (painful) solution is this: Reinstall Windows 7, using the key you have which should work. Don't bother getting any updates for it. Once it's finished the bare-bones installation, use the DVD to upgrade in place to Windows 10. This time there shouldn't be a request for the key (or, as Stuart's quote said, you can skip the request), and it should activate without reentering the key.

Jay,
I still want to retain both Win 7 and the new Win 10 as a dual boot set up.
Won't reinstalling 7 as you describe just install 10 as the new upgrade and not keep the dual boot of both OSs?
I think I have just been staring at this screen too much!

[Jay Freedman]

Bob, if I understand what I've read elsewhere, the (painful) solution is this: Reinstall Windows 7, using the key you have which should work. Don't bother getting any updates for it. Once it's finished the bare-bones installation, use the DVD to upgrade in place to Windows 10. This time there shouldn't be a request for the key (or, as Stuart's quote said, you can skip the request), and it should activate without reentering the key.

Jay,
I still want to retain both Win 7 and the new Win 10 as a dual boot set up.
Won't reinstalling 7 as you describe just install 10 as the new upgrade and not keep the dual boot of both OSs?
I think I have just been staring at this screen too much!

Sorry, I didn't see that you're dual booting.

You can't "upgrade" to Windows 10 and also keep Windows 7 with the same product key. The upgrade shifts the license from the old OS to the new OS. In order to legally keep both OSs on the machine, you need separate licenses. That means either buying another Windows 7 license and upgrading it, or buying a Windows 10 license for a clean install.

[viking33]

This quote from "How to GEEK" says this about dual booting both OSs.
UPDATE: if you haven’t installed Windows 10 on your PC before, you’ll probably have to perform an upgrade first before you can clean install. If this doesn’t make any sense, that’s because Microsoft never makes licensing easy, even when there’s a free version.
Underline is mine.
What I don't understand is the I DID have both Win 7 and the Win 10 Preview running very happily in Dual Boot, without any activation clashes at all. Now the release version comes out and there is a problem, Houston?
Was this a last minute "hidden" change? IF so, it was a slap in the face or somewhere else, to all of the previewers!
I'm not giving up on this yet!

[PaulB]

What I don't understand is the I DID have both Win 7 and the Win 10 Preview running very happily in Dual Boot, without any activation clashes at all.

Bob, could that be because the Win 10 Technical Preview had its own Product Key?

[Jay Freedman]

What I don't understand is the I DID have both Win 7 and the Win 10 Preview running very happily in Dual Boot, without any activation clashes at all. Now the release version comes out and there is a problem, Houston?
Was this a last minute "hidden" change? IF so, it was a slap in the face or somewhere else, to all of the previewers!
I'm not giving up on this yet!

The Win10 Preview didn't need any activation, because MS wanted us to do their beta testing. If you had left the Insider version of the Preview in place and let the final release version update that, you wouldn't have been asked for a product key -- at least as long as you remained in the Insider Program. (And as far as I can tell, you don't actually have to do anything to stay in Insiders, as there don't seem to be any requirements for activity.)

I'm not sure, but it may work to just reinstall the Insider version (I assume you have an image backup to do that from) and then update that.

[viking33]

Just a note to update this thing. After a few "discussions" with the MS Windows 10 support group, back and forth, I finally got to a more senior group leader and she agreed to give me a new product key for Win 10. Keyed in the new number and there it was activated and running as was W1n 7. No reinstalling 7 and no insistence on BUYING a new copy of Win 7. I suppose I just wore them down and they wanted to get rid of this persistent person. So there!

[BobArch2]

News Bulletin: Next big Windows 10 release will ease activation hassles.

Edited 2015.10.14 08:10 to correct link. [Thanks Hans... too many tabs open last night when I first posted ]

[HansV]

Bob (Archell), your link points to the top of this thread...

[Rudi]

I suppose I just wore them down and they wanted to get rid of this persistent person. So there!

Good for you Bob; persistence usually pays off 96.58% of the time. The other 3.42% ends up ticking off the person/company and backfires on you.
Glad you won this episode!

[BobArch2]

Bob (Archell), your link points to the top of this thread...

Oops... link corrected!

[HansV]

Thanks!