Can an OEM Windows 7/8/8.1 product key be used to activate Windows 10?

Whats First Big Update (Which Arrives Today)
I have read the above article. My understanding is that a user can clean-install and activate Windows 10 on a computer running Windows 7/8/8.1 that has never been upgraded to Windows 10 as long as the user has a valid Windows 7/8/8.1 product key.

However, someone (Mr. Zhai Jian) on a Chinese forum thinks that such a computer firstly has to be upgraded, getting a digital entitlement, and only after that can a clean installation be performed. He does not believe an OEM Windows 7/8/8.1 product key can be used to activate Windows 10.

Who is correct, Mr. Zhai Jian or I?

Matthew Wai said:

Whats First Big Update (Which Arrives Today)
I have read the above article. My understanding is that a user can clean-install and activate Windows 10 on a computer running Windows 7/8/8.1 that has never been upgraded to Windows 10 as long as the user has a valid Windows 7/8/8.1 product key.

However, someone (Mr. Zhai Jian) on a Chinese forum thinks that such a computer firstly has to be upgraded, getting a digital entitlement, and only after that can a clean installation be performed. He does not believe an OEM Windows 7/8/8.1 product key can be used to activate Windows 10.

Who is correct, Mr. Zhai Jian or I?

Jian's is NOT completely wrong.
At the very beginning, Microsoft insisted that we must do the UPGRADE process if we wanted Windows 10. Clean Install was not accepted. Clean Install could only be done AFTER upgrade install was successfully completed.
But later on, Microsoft changed their mind and included Clean Install as one of the ways to install Windows 10.
You can say Jian's info was out-dated.

davidhk said:

You can say Jian's info was out-dated.

And he did not accept the updated info I showed him.
davidhk, as you are Cantonese, you might be interested to read what he wrote in Cantonese at IE 11 ¦¨¤éHANG - Windows ¨t²Î¤Î³n¥óQ&A - *»´ä°Q½×°Ï Discuss.com.hk - *»°Q¡D*»´ä No.1
His username is 齋煎, and mine is matthew_wai there.

Matthew Wai said:

And he did not accept the updated info I showed him.
davidhk, as you are Cantonese, you might be interested to read what he wrote in Cantonese at IE 11 ¦¨¤éHANG - Windows ¨t²Î¤Î³n¥óQ&A - *»´ä°Q½×°Ï Discuss.com.hk - *»°Q¡D*»´ä No.1
His username is 齋煎, and mine is matthew_wai there.

No point to argue.
The best way is to show him an article to prove your point, such as the How-to-geek link you posted here.
If he does not accept that, so be it.

My mandate in joining a forum is to help others in need, not to showcase little that I know.
I shall offer my suggestion. The OP will decide to accept or reject. Either case, my job is done.
Don't contradict others who post an opposite view. If the opposite view is dangerous to the safety of the OP's computer, contact the Moderators. That's their job.
Never my intention to engage in a debate, although I had broken the rule and got into a couple of heated exchanges.
I am only human.

davidhk said:

No point to argue.

I was just discussing instead of arguing with him.

The claim that you can't use an OEM key to activate Win10 is not entirely incorrect.

I upgraded an HP Win7 laptop to Win10 and when I tried to manually enter the key, it said it was invalid.

I used different utilities, prior to the Upgrade, to retrieve the key, and tried the key from them -- and once again, it did not work.

What DID work (after an image restore back to Win7) was using the genuineticket approach documented in this forum.

Also, there are lots of posts on the HP forums about folks getting an error message that their OEM key has been "blocked" when they try to activate Win10.

So, there are situations in which folks will be prevented from activating Win10 using OEM keys.

Mark Phelps said:

I upgraded an HP Win7 laptop to Win10 and when I tried to manually enter the key, it said it was invalid.

When did you enter your Win7 key, during or after installation of Win10?

Mark Phelps said:

The claim that you can't use an OEM key to activate Win10 is not entirely incorrect.

I upgraded an HP Win7 laptop to Win10 and when I tried to manually enter the key, it said it was invalid.

I used different utilities, prior to the Upgrade, to retrieve the key, and tried the key from them -- and once again, it did not work.

What DID work (after an image restore back to Win7) was using the genuineticket approach documented in this forum.

Also, there are lots of posts on the HP forums about folks getting an error message that their OEM key has been "blocked" when they try to activate Win10.

So, there are situations in which folks will be prevented from activating Win10 using OEM keys.

You were more than likely attempting to use the SLP key:
SLP Product Keys Explained Foolish IT

The SLP product key does not get it's activation from Microsoft, it gets it's activation from the OEM provided software, therefore it will not work to activate Windows 10 by contacting Microsoft with only the product key (which is what happens when you enter it manually). You can determine if your product key is SLP by running it through showkey on this forum and showkey will answer with OEM:SLP.

The genuineticket.xml file not only captures the product key from the previous OS, it also captures the activation information as well. So then when Windows 10 contacts Microsoft servers for activation, it sends the actual activated status of the previous OS rather than just the product key and that results in the return activation of Windows 10.

All of this information, along with the Hardware ID of the computer and the product ID of the version of Windows installed, is encoded into the Installation ID code - the 63 digit number you enter when you do telephone activation. An SLP product key by itself without the accompanying previous activation from the software provided by the OEM that activated it won't activate Windows 10.