New
#11
I think that the product key from the existing 7, 8, or 8.1 OS will work for 10. I did a clean install of 8.1 and the 8 key worked. And then I added the media center key and that worked also. Probably as long as it's on the same mobo it won't matter. I did a clean install of 10tp and the iso was for the pro version even though the links were either x64 or x86 . I'm just hoping that there will be a way to make a DVD so I can do a clean install of the public release.
I'll speculate here a bit,, When Win10 does come out MS will use the existing key(Win7/Win8.1) to validate the PC and then supply a new key for Win10. By doing this the user can keep the old OS and have access to the new one.
I hope.. not sure if it's going to happen this way but this is all speculation by myself at this time.
What about pre-activated systems? One pre-activated key is used acrossed several systems. One person could upgrade, another person wouldn't. I suspect those with pre-activated oem keys, will have to use the OEM key on the back or bottom of their computer or it would make some computers still using windows 7 or 8.1 look not genuine.
Those pre-activated keys are tied up with a unique hardware identifier registered with MS. Although the key is the same, MS will still detect it as a unique key. You shouldn't worry about it. You can rollback and keep your old OS as long as you want.
The issue with multiple keys across is not really an issue that MS has to deal with, do they?? It should be one key per system and if there is a situation were the same key is used for multiple systems the first one to upgrade wins??
I think that will be worked out but it's up to the user to make use of the key they were supplied with and hope it's not been used for more than their system.