Windows 10 Home > Windows 7 Pro > Windows 10 Pro

Boot from the USB or DVD and it will read the product key in bios first.

That's a mistake by Microsoft. It should always use the key from the booted OS if it's activated. If not then read BIOS.
That should be fixed by them.

Ztruker said:

That's a mistake by Microsoft. It should always use the key from the booted OS if it's activated. If not then read BIOS.
That should be fixed by them.

It's been that way since Windows 8.0. For my Multi edition MSDN ISO's anyway. You can override it with a PID.txt file though. That's how I install Pro instead of Home on my two laptops that have 8.0 Core OEM keys. Once the free upgrade offer expires they will code out accepting Windows 8/8.1 OEM embedded keys. Then it won't be as big an issue. What they should do is just open a windows saying this is what we found, want to use it, yes or no? Or display the key and what version its for with an option to edit change it.

NavyLCDR said:

Why would they do that? It wouldn't make any sense. After the free upgrade, people will still be doing clean installs. Windows 10 install should still read the Windows 8 key in bios, install the version indicated by it, then check to see if there is a digital entitlement stored on Microsoft activation servers. What Microsoft will probably change after the free year is the ability of Windows 10 to push a new digital entitlement onto the Microsoft activation servers - which will involve changing only the activation program being run on the servers, not every copy of Windows 10 install media in the public.

Maybe, I think they'll just stop reading 8 keys. Then you get the selection menu, pick your correct version, install with skip key, and activate with your digital entitlement. Just like 10240 ISO did. We'll just have to wait and see what they do. I find the auto reading the 8 keys with no choice in the matter a bit of an inconvenience, to be honest.

NavyLCDR said:

Microsoft isn't catering to computer literate people. Microsoft is catering to those that just want to push the power button and let everything happen automatically for them. And heck, how many threads have you read already on here saying, "Why can't I activate my Windows 10?!?!" and it is because they installed the wrong version - IE: Pro vs. Home, Single Language or N?

Totally agree, for the average Joe it simplifies things. All I'm saying is there is a flip side to that, where it actually complicates things. There are some who were running 10 Pro 10240. Then did a clean install of 10586 and got Home with no say in the matter and no option to select Pro. People are always going to be snagged by the SL edition. The regular Windows 10 ISO won't read those keys. You have to know up front you have a SL key and use the SL ISO for the embedded key to be used. Anyway, it will be interesting to see what they do when the free offer expires. Even then, there won't be anything stopping you from using what ever ISO was last released before that date, and before anything was changed.