Can't use win 7, 8, 8.1 keys after July 29th

cereberus said:

I wonder if it is a bit more subtle than that i.e. it checks for a key and if it finds one, it still activates with a digital licence and you still get a generic 10 key. It could be effectively reupgrading very time, reregistering the digital licence each time. No way to tell as end result is the same. I could see this possible being more efficient though .

In any case, if it does not find a key, it has to search for the digital licence anyway.

It may still check for OEM keys. and install the matching version, then check for a digital entitlement. If there is one it activates, if there isn't it doesn't activate. No new one issued after the 29th.

I really hope they don't do that. Anybody that buys a Retail 10 Pro and does a clean install on a Windows 8/8.1 OEM PC, will most likely end up with an un activated 10 Home. And then do a WTF? Then spend hours trying figure out why? Most OEM PC's ship with Core, not Pro. Or even worse, you buy 10 Home and end up with an un activated 10 Pro because the OEM key was for Pro. Doing a change key will not bail you out of that one.

NavyLCDR said:

The free upgrade code is not in Windows 10 on the user's computer. The free upgrade is on Microsoft servers and on July 29th they will simply turn that off.

I could have explained it better, but what I meant by the "free upgrade code striped out" is removing the auto detection of 8/8.1 OEM keys etc on a clean install. That was only added to make the free upgrade easier.

NavyLCDR said:

I don't think that will get stripped out. Microsoft is still going to want to make things as easy as possible for inexperienced computer users to run and fix Windows 10. And besides, insider build 14393 still checks for the product keys in BIOS/UEFI. If they haven't stripped it out yet, I don't see them doing it before the RTM release.

There are advantages to leaving it in, and disadvantages. What does a user do if they buy 10 Home and end up with an un activated 10 Pro because the OEM 8/8.1 key was for Pro? Doing a change key will not bail you out of that one. Also consider, that if it's an optical disk, it can't be modified. I wouldn't want to be the Microsoft support tech on the other end of that phone call.

I do know what you do in the above situation by the way. There is no easy solution. Edit the registry so you can do an in place repair install of Home, imagine how that would go for a novice PC user over the phone. Or make new modified install media and do yet another clean install, starting all over again from scratch.

How about this scenario for a change of function. Do the auto detection but give an override function during the install?

Example, Windows 8 Core key detected, install 10 Home, yes or no prompt. If you select No then give enter key window with a skip option. If you do the skip install Pro. And vice versa.

If you wanted to get real fancy, have it look for a digital entitlement during the install. If one is found offer up the matching version as the default choice. With an option to override of course.

NavyLCDR said:

Like the choice presented for the download option in the Media Creation Tool. Download the version of Windows recommended for this computer, or pick your own.

Yes, exactly.