Can windows 10 use a windows 8 OEM key?

I have a laptop that originally had windows 8 on it. In its long life the drive got formatted many times, many different OSs were installed on it and now I even have a completely different drive. What I mean to say is that there are not recovery partitions or anything like that.

What I want to do is put windows 10 on this laptop, which currently only has linux installed on it. I have a retail copy of win 10, but I don't want to use it since I have an OEM key for win 8 on this laptop and I feel like it would be a waste not to use it, since until July I can still upgrade to 10 for free. So what I'm asking is, can I just straight install win 10 onto the laptop (after wiping the drive naturally), or do I need to first install 8 that will read the OEM key, and then upgrade to 10?

Also, if win 10 cannot accept a win 8 OEM key, does this mean that if in the future (after win 10 upgrade is no longer free) I decide to wipe my drive for whatever reason, and then later decide I want win 10 back on it, I won't be able to get it since my key will only be valid for win 8 and upgrade is no longer free?

If the Windows 8 product key is stored in bios, Windows 10 will read that product key, install the version it is for (Home or Pro) and if installed for the first time prior to 29 July will activate. After it activates for the first time before 29 July, a digital entitlement for Windows 10 for that computer and version of Windows 10 will be stored on Microsoft activation servers and it will continue to activate for free after 29 July by retrieving the digital entitlement.

If the product key is not stored in bios, you SHOULD be able to enter the Windows 8 product key manually to activate Windows 10 the first time before 29 July - and then the digital entitlement kicks in as above.

Just make sure to install the matching edition of Windows 10. It is probably just regular plain Windows 10. Not "N" and not Single Language edition. If the computer came with "N" Windows 8 or Single Language Windows 8 - then you have to install the matching edition of Windows 10. Home and Pro come packaged together, so you don't have to pick Home or Pro to download, you get them both in the download.

Slartybart said:

You have two choices.

Slartybart, I think you might have missed this in the OP:

norsul said:

What I want to do is put windows 10 on this laptop, which currently only has linux installed on it.

The easiest way for norsul to get Windows 10 on the computer is to do a clean install from a Windows 10 installation USB flash drive or DVD created either with Windows 10 Media Creation Tool or from an ISO downloaded from Microsoft Tech Bench. The clean install of Windows 10 will read a Windows 8 product key in bios and install and activate automatically if there is a product key in bios. If not, norsul SHOULD be able to install Windows 10 by clicking "I don't have a product key", picking the correct version and edition of Windows 10, clicking "skip" or "do this later" when asked for product keys until Windows 10 is fully installed. Then go to the activation screen under updates and security under settings and change the product key to the matching Windows 8 product key and it will activate.

NavyLCDR said:

If the product key is not stored in bios, you SHOULD be able to enter the Windows 8 product key manually

Where am I supposed to get the key then? I just bought the laptop and it had windows on it. There is no key on the back or anything.

Just to be sure I understood correctly - if I get a matching installation of win 10 (most likely home), it should be content with my win 8 key, correct? i.e. I don't have to first install win 8 and then upgrade to win 10, I can just install win 10 straight away?

And yes a clean install is what I am planning to do.

If there is a Windows 8 key in bios, when you start Windows 10 setup for a clean install, it won't even ask you for a product key, it will just start installing after you set a couple of options like language and where you want it to install to.

After you get Windows on it you can see your product keys by running showkey from the software and apps section of these forums.

Well, Slartybart, your knowledge of Linux far outweighs my knowledge of Windows 10 I never could understand all those commands.

Slartybart said:

sudo hexdump -s 56 -e '"MSDM key: " /29 "%s\n"' /sys/firmware/acpi/tables/MSDM

This seems to have produced something that looks an awful lot like a product key. Thanks!