Multiple windows 10 copies.

I have a 'digital entitlement' for a Windows 10 upgrade from Windows 8.1.

As an experiment a few months back I installed Windows 10 as a dual boot on the same hard drive (the same copy with the same digital entitlement). After the second install both copies said they were activated.

Within a short time both copies were no longer valid, i.e. the activation was revoked for both of them. Said something about the key being blacklisted if I recall correctly.

From memory, I had to reinstall Windows 8.1 then upgrade it to 10, make sure it was activated (which I'm guessing gave me a new digital entitlement) then wipe it out and do a clean Windows 10 install since I prefer clean installs to upgrades.

So, if you install the same copy of 10 (with the same product key or digital entitlement) as a dual boot, you'll end up with the activation revoked for both of them.

CarlSD said:

I have a 'digital entitlement' for a Windows 10 upgrade from Windows 8.1.

As an experiment a few months back I installed Windows 10 as a dual boot on the same hard drive (the same copy with the same digital entitlement). After the second install both copies said they were activated.

Within a short time both copies were no longer valid, i.e. the activation was revoked for both of them. Said something about the key being blacklisted if I recall correctly.

From memory, I had to reinstall Windows 8.1 then upgrade it to 10, make sure it was activated (which I'm guessing gave me a new digital entitlement) then wipe it out and do a clean Windows 10 install since I prefer clean installs to upgrades.

So, if you install the same copy of 10 (with the same product key or digital entitlement) as a dual boot, you'll end up with the activation revoked for both of them.

Cheers, this is the information I have been looking for

At variance withCarlSD

Microsoft does not appear to be enforcing their EULA definition of "device" as "partition" yet.

It does not mean that they cannot or will not do so.

In practice, it seems that multiple installations of Windows 10 on different volumes on a single PC which has "digital entitlement" will be accepted as valid and will activate automatically, and remain activated. This may be associated with Insider Membership.

Digital entitlement copies of Windows 10 have generic, edition specific product keys, which are well known and published on the internet - they are not blacklisted.
I would guess that this helps Windows 10 statistically, in terms of installed units.

However, as such, their transfer to other machines remains problematic, or nil, depending on your POV.

Once the one-year honeymoon period for Windows 10 is over, expect things to get tougher.

Revocation of Windows 10 activation is not noticeably common for Tenforum Members who are running multiple instances of Windows 10.

If activation is lost, it usually is reinstated on reinstallation.

Thanks, Fafhrd, that's interesting.

I only tried my experiment once. And, it was with the original W10 release (before the November Threshold 2 update) so I don't know if anything changed after the update. I can't imagine why it would change but stranger things have happened with Windows over the years.

CarlSD said:

Thanks, Fafhrd, that's interesting.

I only tried my experiment once. And, it was with the original W10 release (before the November Threshold 2 update) so I don't know if anything changed after the update. I can't imagine why it would change but stranger things have happened with Windows over the years.

I'm more inclined to go with you Carlsd. Microsoft must have some way to stop you installing the OS multiple times on a machine which has "digital entitlement"

Currently, builds 10240, and 10586 are RTM versions and 14291 (or have I lost track?) is also generally available. The latest insider PC build is 14316. They all have bugs and inconsistencies and idiosyncratic problems.

As an Insider, there are very good reasons to check if behaviour on particular hardware is different as the builds evolve. The same process may be used between editions and x86 and x64 versions.

To be able to compare two or more builds on identical hardware, devices and peripherals may be analysed for changes in driver compatibility, and also software behaviour.

Perhaps a third party app may be updated only to find it will not run on earlier or later builds - a developer will naturally want to support all available Windows 10 systems in use, and test bugs reported in each variation.

The same MS account or local account may be used on several comparative builds. The rationale for running local account (i.e. not as Insider) systems is that not all users are Insiders, and not all users want to run MS accounts. They still deserve support, whatever their preferences.

If Microsoft were to prevent Insider versions at least from running multiple instances, it may stifle development some small software houses with limited resources.

Currently, Digital Entitlement allows multiple copies of Windows 10 to run on the same device. As I noted earlier, this may be subject to change.

There's absolutely no reason to dual-boot the same OS on one computer. What you want to accomplish can be done easily with user accounts.

I have been dual booting a Windows 10 retail version and a Windows 10 preview version on the same machine with one license for weeks and everything seems honky dory.