Now that I've upgraded, how would I re-install in future if needed?

musiclover7 · 30 Jul 2015

So, I finished upgrading one of my machines from Windows 7 sp1 this morning, and the upgrade went off without a hitch. Very nice!

Now my question. What do I do if a year from now I need to reload windows 10. I noted that the product key that was given to me, at least the one that is displayed under system, is mighty generic and does not look like it would work for re-install. Once we have upgraded, do we have a means then of reloading windows 10 in the future?

John Pombrio · 30 Jul 2015

If your mobo has a UEFI BIOS on it, the product key has been "baked" onto the board. You can now do a clean install of Win10 as many times as you want and you will never have to worry about having a license number again.

alphanumeric · 30 Jul 2015

The Product ID shown on the System screen is not your Product Code. showkey will get it for you though. https://www.tenforums.com/software-ap...7-showkey.html
Apparently you don't need it though. You just reinstall leaving the product key entry blank, and as long as you log in with your Microsoft Account it will activate. I haven't confirmed it myself.

alphanumeric · 30 Jul 2015

Forgot to mention, all my Windows 10 installs have the same generic key. They are all 10 Pro. Google the last 5 characters of your key and see what shows up.

Brink · 30 Jul 2015

Hello musiclover,

In addition: :)

Can I reinstall Windows 10 on my computer after upgrading with free upgrade?

Once you’ve upgraded to Windows 10 using the free upgrade offer or Media Creation Tool on an activated Windows 7 or 8.1 PC, you will be able to reinstall, including a clean install, on the same device. You won’t need a product key for re-activations on the same hardware. If you make a meaningful change to your hardware, you may need to contact customer support to help with activation. You’ll also be able to create your own installation media like a USB drive or DVD, and use that to upgrade your device or reinstall after you’ve upgraded.

scott784 · 30 Jul 2015

alphanumeric said:

The Product ID shown on the System screen is not your Product Code. showkey will get it for you though. https://www.tenforums.com/software-ap...7-showkey.html
Apparently you don't need though. You just reinstall leaving the product key entry blank, and as long as you log in with your Microsoft Account it will activate. I haven't confirmed it myself.

How does the completed upgrade install know anything about our MS accounts. My MS account is actually a junk msn email address. But I didn't provide it during my upgrade from Win7 to Win10? And as far as the BIOS, how would that work. I have an 8 year old computer so I don't know how anything gets baked on it. But not really sure about any of this activation stuff right now.

Ztruker · 30 Jul 2015

BIOS was not changed. All info about your computer is now stored by Microsoft on their server.

scott784 · 30 Jul 2015

Ztruker said:

BIOS was not changed. All info about your computer is now stored by Microsoft on their server.

Thanks, that's good to know......... (well at least for any future installs of Win10)

alphanumeric · 31 Jul 2015

This is all new to me too. I'm just sorting things out as I go along. The fun will start when I do my first reinstall/clean install. Not sure when that will be though. Non of my PC's have any issues to make me want to do that right now.