Upgrading from 7 Pro using Techbench ISO - Product Key Required

Hi,

I'm trying to upgrade a desktop Windows 7 Pro 64bit OEM, activated SP1, to Windows 10.

I will have several machines to upgrade, and my fairly slow connection is capped except for overnight downloads, so I've downloaded the 64bit Techbench iso and burned it to DVD. It all looks fine and the sha1 of the iso is correct. I'm in the UK so am using the N version.

I ran setup.exe with Admin rights, selected language etc and was then asked for a product key. There was no skip button. I used MagicalJellyBean to find my key, which was the right length etc but wasn't accepted.

I tried booting from the DVD, and this time I did get a skip option, but after that was instructed to boot normally and run setup - which just went the same as before, key required and the one I have not accepted.

I have read of not getting a skip option if a Home DVD is used on a Pro installation. This can occur with the Media Creation Tool, but the TechBench iso has both Home and Pro. I think the problem may be that the installation is defaulting to Home, but there's no option to select Pro.

To recap, I definitely have a 64bit Pro installation, and am using the 64bit iso which included Home and Pro. I'm trying to do an initial upgrade, not a clean installation. If I can't get it to work I'll just have to try the online process, but an extra 3GB will put a big dent in my capped monthly download.

Thanks for any advice.

Chris

Greybeard2016 said:

I'm in the UK so am using the N version.

Are you upgrading from the N version of Windows 7?

From a footnote here:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/wind...specifications

“N” and “KN” editions follow the upgrade path of the parent edition (e.g. Windows 7 Professional N upgrades to Windows 10 Pro N).

So I suspect that Windows 7 Pro (without N) might not upgrade to Windows 10 Pro (with N), and vice versa.

I'm not sure there's much advantage in the N versions though - as I understand it, it's forced on Microsoft by some EU ruling, but the only difference is that it doesn't contain Media Player and perhaps some other media components, but I find it much simpler to have the normal version and simply choose to use VLC Player or whatever. We certainly don't *have* to use N versions in the UK.

Also, have a look at this tutorial.
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/2...tallation.html

DavidY said:

So I suspect that Windows 7 Pro (without N) might not upgrade to Windows 10 Pro (with N)

Thanks, David. I don't remember the 'N' designation being applied to Windows 7, but my installation does include Media Player, so perhaps it is non-N, which is why it won't accept my key. I'll download the non-N tonight and give it a try.

Chris

Greybeard2016 said:

Thanks, David. I don't remember the 'N' designation being applied to Windows 7, but my installation does include Media Player, so perhaps it is non-N, which is why it won't accept my key. I'll download the non-N tonight and give it a try.

Chris

You also need "English International" not "English" if your version is GB.

"English" is en-US, "International English" is en-GB and upgrade from US English to UK English (or any other locale) isn't possible.

Clean install OK is but not upgrade.

lx07 said:

You also need "English International" not "English" if your version is GB.

"English" is en-US, "International English" is en-GB and upgrade from US English to UK English (or any other locale) isn't possible.

Thanks, I selected International English in the install - but I will also check that my existing install is set to that - it was bought in GB, but always worth a check.

Most uk versions are not the N versions as very few in uk bothered to use that version.

Thanks for your help. The plain Win10_1511_EnglishInternational_x64 iso worked fine (not even a prompt for the key), so it was my assumption that I should use N that caused the issue. The installer did warn me that my language settings would be changed and I'd need to install a new language pack - but this wasn't necessary, I did end up with UK English, so it looks like my original install version may have been US English. I'll mark the thread as solved.