After Upgrading to windows 10

Well I am in the process of testing this because I have a few window homes that are no longer in use as I moved to windows 8.1 on those systems so I am trying to find out the limits as we speak.

But, on my main systems as I have a few dedicated to certain tasks & they are all Windows 7 Ultimate retails. With those I can remove windows from a machine & install it on a entirely new machine. So if windows 10 won't allow me to do this, basically locking my windows 10 to a machine that might have failed or as most Desktop user's do, upgrade HDD, GPU, Motherboards & CPUs as time goes on. So I would love to know if any of this happens would it basically invalidate my windows 10 unless I re install it on the activation machine because if this is the case then that is a SERIOUS flaw in their thinking because Desktops & some laptops can have more than just the HDD upgraded or changed for better ones. I mean I've changed my motherboard twice this year because I just didn't like the one's I purchased & they are now sat in boxes for those just in case days lol.

There are two scenarios:
- You have original win 7 or Win 8. You CAN’T use your win 7 or Win 8 code to do a fresh install. You will have first to do an upgrade on your win 7 or Win 8 (run setup from inside Windows), MS will then verify if your win 7 or Win 8 is original, record your LAN MAC and activate. After this upgrade activation you can do a clean install using the same motherboard (LAN MAC). You just skip inserting the code during installation. To activate, MS won’t verify the Win 10 code, but if the LAN MAC has been used before during an update. Of course, if you have used same Windows 7 or 8 code in more than one computer, only the first one to activate will activate automatically.

- You buy a Win 10 code. In this case you have to insert the Win 10 code you bought during installation. For what I read, I suppose MS will record the LAN MAC when you first activate, so it will activate automatically regardless when it was last activation, as long as it has the same LAN MAC, or in other words, same motherboard. Don’t know what is the procedure to activate if you change your motherboard (and the LAN code associated). Also don’t know if, with the same Windows copy and code, it is possible to install on more than one computer, using the telephone to activate.

I’m not planning to do the update right away, for obvious reasons. Many bugs to correct and there will be many, many problems and fixes on the next months ahead. The ideal is to wait the first service pack before installing a new OS.

Well I am already deterred by the fact it uses the LAN MAC code on my motherboard. I'm a hardware/software developer/engineer & I often change/upgrade my hardware & sell on my unwanted hardware. So from this I am guessing someone who buys a second hand motherboard could then just install windows 10 fresh & microsoft will activate.

I really dislike the notion of relying on physical attributes to identify authenticity & to activate. I think I will remain with the current windows I am using for any/all of my systems because this supposed Free upgrade is looking less & less Free by the day because its riddled with fine printed terms & conditions that cannot realistically be met!

I just did a clean install on a different clean hard drive using the ISO and the key on all my 4 systems have the same key after the upgrade. I just did another customers Dell i5 Laptop and has a different key .

51sandman said:

I just did a clean install on a different clean hard drive using the ISO and the key on all my 4 systems have the same key after the upgrade. I just did another customers Dell i5 Laptop and has a different key .

I believe OEM & Home versions of windows 7/8 have the same key & Pro & ultimate of windows 7 & equiv of windows 8 have another key. I think this is to differentiate between the versions the upgrade gives otherwise a home OEM could end up with the features of someone who had Ultimate! "I THINK"!

Yesterday I cloned my HDD to an old HDD and then, from inside Win7, I did the upgrade. When it finished it was activated. I then disabled the LAN on BIOS and when booted Windows claimed for activation. Enabled LAN on BIOS and Windows was again activated.
For those who think that Win10 is free, please think again. M$ is a private company and is on the market to make money. M$ saw other companies (Google, Facebook etc.) making money tracking users clicks and decided to do the same. The reason they don’t allow to use Win7 and Win8 key to do a fresh install is that they want you to install Win10 right away. And they are pushing hard you to do so.
For those who have already installed Win10, go to the private settings tab and have a look on what is allowed to Win10 to track by default. Camera, microphone, location, what you type, and the sites you visit. Everything you do is tracked. Even your mail contacts they can share (sell) with others.
If you disable these defaults, most things won’t work anymore (like Cortana and applications).
As the best software is the one you know how to use, I’ve already decided I’ll continue to use my Win7. Haven’t seen nothing on Win10 that worth the upgrade.

I now have a Windows 10 Home 64 bit key and I am going to see if I can do a clean install on a formatted drive.

Indianatone said:

I have 7 Ultimate dual booting with 8.1 on my machines and the excuse for an OS 10 was on my machine for less than a day before I returned to the 8.1 image I had taken. It spies on you is not reliable and is full of adverts. I am sticking with 7 & 8.1 like most people will decide to do. I cannot see any business users agreeing to being spied on. 7 is by far and away the best OS. 8.1 frankly will do in a push but 10 no way.

Weren't there a notion about dual boots, and win 10 takes it away for being the 'one kernel to rule them all'?

Upgrade finds the lkey for the qualifying OS and hashes it with hardware ID(s) and creates a new authentication value, encrypts it , then stores that value in firmware.

A subsequent clean install find the stored authentication value and uses that to activate.

It is best to skip this step or do this later if asked for a key and Windows will automatically activate.

The only time you would enter a key, and I'm not sure there are such things any longer, would be if you purchased a Retail version or if you do not have Internet access (phone activation required).

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Grislord said:

Weren't there a notion about dual boots, and win 10 takes it away for being the 'one kernel to rule them all'?

The upgrade applies to the license. Nothing is taken away, you're given rights to use Win10 if you accept the EULA terms.

You can remove Win10 and install Win7 with the original Win7 terms. Both EULAs say that you can only run one install at a time. A Retail license says you can transfer the OS to another machine IF ... if you remove the OS from the first machine.

It's OR not AND

Not a whole lot has really changed in that area of licensing.

Not on kernel to rule them all, not yet anyway