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#21
To quote the infamous Ralph Cramden: What a revolting development this is!
I understand Microsoft's desire to ensure Win10 gets installed on a legal (to MS) system. But WIn10 refused to take the activation code from my Win7 install DVD, so what's a person to do?
It is not unreasonable to want to do a clean install, and the apparent requirement to do an upgrade to an existing 7 or 8 install and then do another clean install is rather draconian to say the least. In particular, my guess is that people (like me) would not want to risk fouling up an existing, working system just to be able to get to the point of doing yet another install so they can start with a clean installation.
This seems like another example of how SNAFU'd things turn out when you let marketing people make technical decision.
I think that Microsoft has shown the horse the carrot then hidden it. Why? Well, deliberately.
There will be feverish attempts to crack the activation from certain quarters, and anything mildly successful will spread through the online community like wildfire. Microsoft will have kms keys and sites, as well as MSAs to blacklist, and any other system or software that can do the trick which surfaces will be targeted. Probably not for a month or two, but when the retail version is in the shops, (I called it Black EyePatch Tuesday earlier), one set of updates will target illicitly activated systems and turn them into notification nag machines. and their updates (except security) will be stopped until they become legitimate again.
Be patient, and the next 13 days will fly by.
My original upgrade over 10166 had the same result. But it isn't the first upgrade, it is an attempt to do an install to a new drive after you had done the original install.
I use the term "New Drive" just to make clear you are not wiping the drive during the install but had wiped the drive before the install was started.
My comments are based on my own testing. I lost a system becauseI could not reactivate a clean install on a system where I had used the .iso upgrade, but was able to activate a clean install on a system that had done the download upgrade.
Edit: I just got my install back on the .iso upgraded system. I do not know exactly what happened, but I checked the computer name to make sure it was accurate, I reinserted some of the registry information, and there was another security update.. Whatever it was, the system is now activated.
**It should be noted, that even though the clean install did activate, the options for preview builds was different from an upgraded install. It may not be able to move to a new build if one is offered.
Last edited by Saltgrass; 17 Jul 2015 at 20:31.
I can't really comment on your statement, but if activation of the upgrade requires a certain process to be performed, doing it a different way, such as .iso, may not set the system up as required.
But these types of situations are normally why I go for the retail version, which will come with a License Key but may not need it for repeat installs.
If you go to settings, accounts, manage my account, and then devices - if you have used a Microsoft Account and have installed on more than one device with your MSA linked to that device - you will be taken to https://account.microsoft.com/?ref=s...form=Windows10
A few of your device details will be accessed from Microsoft's database on installed Windows 10 devices. Presumably phones and Xbox etc., will get there as well in time. Perhaps there are details of Windows 8 activity with the same MSA that are not shown.
If you click on a device, it will take you to https://account.microsoft.com/devices
showing you that you can remove and add devices, for instance if you delete an OS or transfer to another device.
Microsoft has this information whether the installation is linked to an MSA or not as well as IP and ISP data, location thru WiFi or GPs etc. It's all a bit scary.
By the way, one of these installations is activated, the other is not.