How to get product key of old OS (Win 7) after upgrading to Win 10?

NavyLCDR · 10 Oct 2015

There are ISOs available that OEM Windows 7 keys can be used with.
Download Windows 7 ISOs, Legally and for Free | PCsteps.com

It is ridiculous that Microsoft won't let you get a Windows 7 ISO for use with an OEM key.

alphanumeric · 10 Oct 2015

Joergi said:

To come back to the original question: After the upgrade to Windows 10, you have a 30 day period to go back to the previous version of Windows. The question now was whether - after these 30 days were over (and the previous version had been removed from the PC) and if you then went back to the previous version, if then this old version would still (meaning: again) activate.

The answer is: Yes, the old version of Windows will activate again. The old key can stil be used for the old version:

From Recovery options in Windows 10 - Windows Help, section "Go back to your previous version of Windows"

I just confirmed it myself. Well past the 30 day period, did a clean install of the previous OS, Windows 8.1 Pro, activated just fine.

alphanumeric · 10 Oct 2015

NavyLCDR said:

There are ISOs available that OEM Windows 7 keys can be used with.
Download Windows 7 ISOs, Legally and for Free | PCsteps.com

It is ridiculous that Microsoft won't let you get a Windows 7 ISO for use with an OEM key.

The key on the COA sticker yes. The factory OEM-SLP key requires custom branded OEM install media. It has custom OEM files on it to do the OEM-SLP activation.

EDIT: My MSDN Windows 7 ISO will accept OEM and Retail keys. By OEM I mean the ones on the COA sticker.

NavyLCDR · 10 Oct 2015

alphanumeric said:

The key on the COA sticker yes. The factory OEM-SLP key requires custom branded OEM install media. It has custom OEM files on it to do the OEM-SLP activation.

EDIT: My MSDN Windows 7 ISO will accept OEM and Retail keys. By OEM I mean the ones on the COA sticker.

K. My Home Premium keys are coming back as OEM:NONSLP on showkey.

alphanumeric · 10 Oct 2015

NavyLCDR said:

K. My Home Premium keys are coming back as OEM:NONSLP on showkey.

Yeah, the OEM-SLP keys are generic keys common to that manufacturer. They are actually blocked from online activation and phone activation. Factory OEM-SLP installs do not activate online, they activate against the SLIC table in the BIOS. That's why the key on the COA sticker is a different key and a unique key. It can activate online, although I've usually had to do a phone activation the first time I used one of those. If you can actually read the sticker that is.

Mystere · 10 Oct 2015

Kari said:

No tutorial is needed, Microsoft has made this so clear there's no doubt: when an upgrade to 10 is made from a qualifying OS, the underlying valid product key is used to activate 10. It will be flagged as used, a free upgrade to 10 does naturally not give you two activated operating systems, the underlying and the new one. Only one OS will be valid, the upgraded 10, its activation based on the valid underlying product key.

No, Kari. I respect so many of your posts, but in this case you are very very wrong. I have, on several occasions upgraded an OS to 10, and then reverted back to the old OS by reinstallation and re-activation. The key is fine, and continues to work. It is not flagged as "used".

If you use the same key to activate too many times too quickly, it will be blocked from online activation, saying it's already in use, but you are free to use the phone activation to re-activate.

This doesn't really even make sense, since upgrading only uses the activation certificate from the old OS and activates based on that. It may contain the old key in that certificate somewhere, but it does not in any way invalidate the old license.

Of course, you're not legally allowed to run two copies of the OS at the same time, but that doesn't change the fact that you can do it.

Of course I could have done the last install with a generic Windows 8 key and then try to activate it from the settings, but the result is the same: key is used.

I repeat the fact that the Windows 8.1 Pro key I used for this experiment was virgin, never used before. Those knowing MSDN, I only claimed the key today just before starting this experiment.[/QUOTE]

NavyLCDR · 11 Oct 2015

Mystere said:

No, Kari. I respect so many of your posts, but in this case you are very very wrong.

Uhoh Mystere.... Kari himself said:

Kari said:

I have paid for my lessons here, learned that there are members who do not tolerate being corrected. My mistake, I don't always remember the lessons taken. Sorry.

Kari · 11 Oct 2015

NavyLCDR said:

Uhoh Mystere.... Kari himself said:

Yes, I said that. Tells quite a lot about you that you had to post about it without any whatsoever context, just for insult's sake.

Now I am acknowledging the fact that MS seemingly has somewhat lenient policy regarding Windows 10 upgrades and I was wrong in this matter; I have now repeated my test two times, both times installing and activating Windows 8 Pro with a valid retail key on two separate machines, then upgraded to 10 and tested the key again on a third machine, this time the reuse of the key, activating Windows 8.1 with the same key used for upgrade had no issues.

I have no idea why the key in my first test stopped working after the upgrade, I could not get it to work today even with phone activation option. Also, my previous experience with the Windows 7 Ultimate key as told previously in this thread, together with some other facts and some logics makes me to believe that the way it seemingly works for now might stop working at some point.

I honestly believe that it should not be like this. I believe that the intent of Microsoft was and is not to give every owner of valid Windows 7 and 8.1 a second, another operating system for free letting users activate a qualifying previous OS on one machine and the free Windows 10 on another, but instead let users of Windows 7 and 8.1 upgrade, replace their previous valid and qualifying OS with Windows 10.

Simply, the intent of Microsoft is quite clearly that a user of a qualified OS uses the upgrade on that machine, replacing the previous OS.

Kari

Kari · 11 Oct 2015

In addition to my previous post:

I refuse to believe that MS has intentionally created a system where someone could for instance go around the village, house to house, PC to PC asking "Don't you have a qualifying OS for Windows 10 Free Upgrade? Don't want to pay for it? No worries, give me a few bucks, I install and activate Windows 8.1 with my product key on your PC and upgrade your PC to 10 for free!", then continues to next house to do the same, with this "reusable" 8.1 key.

Logically thinking this can't be the case, can't be how MS intended it to work.

Kari

alphanumeric · 11 Oct 2015

It's a free upgrade, that some may not like, or that some software may not play well with. There needs to be an out so you can go back to what worked before. Rollback works (for 30 days). If they blocked the old key Rollback wouldn't work would it? You'd go back but be un activated. How do you think it would go over if Microsoft then said, oh you want to go back to your old OS, well your going to have to buy it again, have a nice day. Makes perfect sense to me why they didn't blacklist your old key, and to a lot of other people here. If you upgraded from a factory OEM-SLP Windows 7 install they can't blacklist the key anyway, it's already blacklisted to begin with. They don't activate online. That same OEM-SLP key is used on millions of PC's by that OEM. Are you going to kill activation for all those PC's using that same key, even if they didn't do the free upgrade?