Want to move to another OS but retain license w/ free upgrade to 10

10userNYC · 06 May 2016

Hate to come here and ask this. Purpose of this thread is not to trash W10.

I'd like to format and install another OS on my desktop's HDD. What is the best way to keep my activated 8.1x64 Pro COA with free 10 upgrade?

Can I shrink my partition way down and just do a dd copy to another drive? W10 is on a pretty nice 480gb ssd right now so I don't really want to just put that on the shelf and let it collect dust. Is there a way to maintain the keys so I can just do a fresh install and reactivate?

Thanks.

EDIT: I have a fully validated "Retail" 8.1 Pro x64 upgraded to 10.

I moved a similar OS (also full activated Retail 8.1 x64 Pro upgraded to 10) between two identical machines (both were Dell T7500 workstations) and it tripped the activation thing and now even when I put the HDD back in the old machine it still needs activation. I want out of MSFT & W10 right now but I don't want to burn the licenses...

alphanumeric · 06 May 2016

Once you do the upgrade and activate, a digital entitlement to Windows 10, for that PC is stored on the Microsoft activation server. You can completely wipe the hard drive and it will not be lost. You can clean install that same version of Windows 10 on that same hardware, and just click skip when asked for a key. It will activate with the digital entitlement.

10userNYC · 06 May 2016

alphanumeric said:

Once you do the upgrade and activate, a digital entitlement to Windows 10, for that PC is stored on the Microsoft activation server. You can completely wipe the hard drive and it will not be lost. You can clean install that same version of Windows 10 on that same hardware, and just click skip when asked for a key. It will activate with the digital entitlement.

Wow that's cool (and a bit scary)... So I can nuke the HDD and I don't even need to make a backup copy? It'll just auto re-authenticate and be good to go? Thanks!

simrick · 06 May 2016

10userNYC said:

...EDIT: I have a fully validated "Retail" 8.1 Pro x64 upgraded to 10.

I moved a similar OS (also full activated Retail 8.1 x64 Pro upgraded to 10) between two identical machines (both were Dell T7500 workstations) and it tripped the activation thing and now even when I put the HDD back in the old machine it still needs activation. I want out of MSFT & W10 right now but I don't want to burn the licenses...

Alpha is correct. Once installed and activated on a system, W10 can be clean installed as many times as you need/want.

With regards your Dell T7500s: When moving a retail key, it's best to unregister it first, and then register with the new system.
At an Administrative Command Prompt:

Code:

slmgr /upk

To register, type

Code:

slmgr /ipk xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx

That could be your problem, if it is indeed a retail key.

10userNYC · 06 May 2016

Thank you! Tried it. It works... Next reply will be from a Linux OS... :-/

simrick · 06 May 2016

10userNYC said:

Thank you! Tried it. It works... Next reply will be from a Linux OS... :-/

That's great! But, which system are you referring to?

10userNYC · 12 May 2016

simrick said:

That's great! But, which system are you referring to?

Sorry, Have not tried it with the T7500 machine. I have ESXi running on the first one right now so I can't take it offline and swap the HDD's back to see if it'll register/unregister properly. I have another two 7500's an a couple R710's on their way to me now so when they get here and I get everything up and running I'll let you know.

I was talking about formatting W10 from my desktop's HDD and installing Linux --and then going back to W10 and it worked fine (registered/activated fine). Thanks.