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How best to install windows 10 on an older laptop?
I have a bootable USB stick with windows 10 home on it that I used to do a clean install on my main laptop. I was considering using it on an older laptop as well, but my concern is with the validation. The older laptop isn't new enough to have the windows CD key in the bios, so I don't think it will validate automatically like my newer laptop did. There is a sticker on the bottom with the windows 7 professional CD key, but unfortunately the last 5 or 10 digits have been rubbed off to the point that they are unreadable. Does that mean that I can't delete the disk partitions and do a clean install like I did on my newer laptop? I considered doing the job using windows update, but windows update doesn't give me the option to get windows 10, nor do I see a windows 10 icon in the system tray. I tried turning windows update on, but since it has been off for a few years it reported that there were about 100 updates to install. My one past experience trying to install that many updates suggests it will probably take about 10 hours and then fail during final processing. Does it prevent you from seeing the windows 10 update until you have done all the windows 7 updates first? Does it make sense that one should spend all that time updating an operating system that one is just about to overwrite? (By the way I already have service pack 1). Thanks in advance for any suggestions you may have.
~Paul