Win10 upgrade and a retail purchase of Win10 Pro- not the same.

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  1. Posts : 15,024
    Windows 10 IoT
       #91

    NavyLCDR said:
    And during the free year, you move your previous OS to a new computer and activate it, as legally allowed with a retail license, and then upgrade it, as legally allowed.

    Now, with the generic key and hardware ID scheme, Microsoft has created a loophole that will allow users to have multiple illegal Windows 10 installations with permanent activations stored on their servers.
    How do you figure that? You can only activate with the generic key, if you first upgraded from an activated qualifying OS, and then activated Windows 10. Clean installs using that generic key on hardware not already previously activated, like I mentioned, will fail activation. That's the way its supposed to work anyway.
    Last edited by alphanumeric; 09 Aug 2015 at 15:05.
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  2. Posts : 3,257
    Windows 10 Pro
       #92

    paev said:
    I read that the update is valid for the machine you updated only. Once you changed the machine read hardware Windows 10 update stops being free. Therefore, the update is Bur for this machine only.
    You read wrong. That is simply not the case.
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  3. Posts : 3,257
    Windows 10 Pro
       #93

    alphanumeric said:
    How do you figure that? You can only activate with the generic key, if you first upgraded from an activated qualifying OS, and then activated Windows 10. Clean installs on hardware not already previously activated like I mentioned will fail activation. That's the way its supposed to work anyway.
    This reads a little wonky, but you are correct (I had to read your message 3 times to understand exactly what you were saying).

    Activation for an upgrade only works if that hardware has been upgraded from an activated Windows 7/8.x, using the generic key without upgrading results in a blocked key error.
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  4. Posts : 3,257
    Windows 10 Pro
       #94

    Mark Phelps said:
    I understand what the EULA says -- but I fail to see how that can even be possible! I mean, HOW are you going to "transfer the software" from one Windows PC to another?

    You could make a backup image of PC #1 and "restore" that image to PC #2. But, after that, most likely, PC #2 won't boot because of driver differences. So, this method likely won't work.

    Or ... you could do a clean-install of PC #2 from a Win10 ISO -- but this would be to a PC that had never been activated through an Upgrade, so as we've all read now (probably hundreds of times!), this will not activate. So, this method likely won't work, either.

    If MS allowed us to activate Win10 using a product key, then we could use the second method and simply enter the product key -- but they don't allow that method.

    So basically, the statement in the EULA is, at this time, just BS -- because you can't actually do it.
    No, not true. You transfer it to another PC by first installing Windows 7 or 8.x on that PC and activating it, then you can perform the upgrade on it. I'm not sure why this is so hard to understand (you claim to not understand how this could work).

    After the year of free upgrades is over, this will still work because your original 7/8.x key is marked as upgraded, so the new upgrade will activate just like it always has.
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  5. Posts : 569
    Windows 10 Pro/Windows 7 Ultimate
       #95

    I dunno, I updated a Windows 7 Ultimate system to Windows 10 Pro, and it got activated, I was expecting it to not be and having to buy a new license. But it appears that Microsoft is being very generous with this, they want everyone to be on Win10. That should not be a problem though.
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  6. pal
    Posts : 43
    Win10
       #96

    Mystere said:
    No, not true. You transfer it to another PC by first installing Windows 7 or 8.x on that PC and activating it, then you can perform the upgrade on it. I'm not sure why this is so hard to understand (you claim to not understand how this could work).

    After the year of free upgrades is over, this will still work because your original 7/8.x key is marked as upgraded, so the new upgrade will activate just like it always has.
    The point would be that when you cannot upgrade for free anymore, you will no longer be able to install it on a new machine. It will only activate on your old machine = oem license.
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  7. Posts : 15,024
    Windows 10 IoT
       #97

    Mystere said:
    After the year of free upgrades is over, this will still work because your original 7/8.x key is marked as upgraded, so the new upgrade will activate just like it always has.
    Link to that info, if you have it please? What happens if you do that but don't wipe, the previous install/upgrade? What's to stop somebody from doing endless free upgrades with that one windows 7/8.1 Product code?
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  8. Posts : 15,024
    Windows 10 IoT
       #98

    Mystere said:
    This reads a little wonky, but you are correct (I had to read your message 3 times to understand exactly what you were saying).

    Activation for an upgrade only works if that hardware has been upgraded from an activated Windows 7/8.x, using the generic key without upgrading results in a blocked key error.
    Edited it but not sure if its any easier to understand. made sense to me when I posted it.
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  9. Posts : 5,478
    2004
       #99

    pal said:
    The point would be that when you cannot upgrade for free anymore, you will no longer be able to install it on a new machine. It will only activate on your old machine = oem license.
    In my case I just transferred my upgraded 10 image from my laptop to my wife's MacBook. I didn't even have to call MS - it activated immediately.

    There may me some logic in their plans you do not like but "unfair" doesn't appear to be one. Office 2010 transferred OK and activated also. I just backed up and restored incidentally using a standard image and am currently restoring my next 8.1 image to upgrade on my laptop again.

    It seems to me that if you have a valid license they don't bug you any more than in the past if you move it around.

    If it makes a difference I have retail licenses (from the 7 to 8 upgrade cheap thing).
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  10. Posts : 3,257
    Windows 10 Pro
       #100

    pal said:
    The point would be that when you cannot upgrade for free anymore, you will no longer be able to install it on a new machine. It will only activate on your old machine = oem license.
    What part of "After the year of free upgrades is over, this will still work" didn't you understand? Your old Windows 7/8.x key is stored in MS's activation servers as having been free upgraded, so any time you re-upgrade it will activate even after the 1 year.
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