W7 -> W10 + hardware changout

The ability to activate a new Windows 10 installation with a Windows 7 product key depends upon the condition of the Windows 7 product key. My Windows 7 retail product key has been used so many times that it will not activate online and I have to use phone activation. If that is the case with the Windows 7 product key, then the only way to activate Windows 10 with it is to install Windows 7 first, activate that over the phone, then use the genuineticket.xml file to activate Windows 10 on that same computer.

If your Windows 7 product key has not been blocked from online activation - then yes, you can activate Windows 10 with it by just manually entering it in Windows 10.

The problem is that you probably won't know the condition of your Windows 7 product key until you try to use it for an online activation.

Thanks for the reply.

I know the condition-ish, of mine.

I bought my retail copy when I built my machine in 2011. Used it once on the first install.

I did swap to a SSD drive a few year later, but all other hardware was the same, and I dont recall having to enter my key that time.

But I get what you are saying, I won't know if I'm blocked or not - until I try to do it. I think likely I won't be.

I'm really trying to avoid the whole hassle of w7 first install, since there's that whole messy issue of USB drivers on 100 series for w7 to use during install, and while 1 motherboard I'm looking at does have 1 PS2 port I could keyboard-only my way through...the other has no ps2 ports and while I'm sure making a custom install DVD isn't horrible ...bleh...

@alvehyanna,

Exactly, I'm changing my old motherboard (socket 775), pentium dual core E5400 processor and 4gb ddr2 to new skylake motherboard (H110M-D, socket 1151). core i3 6100 processor and 8Gb ddr4 ram. I'm reused back my HDD , DVD drive and casing.

You don't need to install Windows 7 again on new hardware, just proceed with Windows 10 installation and insert your Windows 7 retail key, i have done that and it's working and activated.