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#11
Yes but those Keys are issued by Microsoft and those keys are in sequence and MS can identify the OEM by the key. Eventhough the OS is installed by the OEM Windows is ONLY activated by Microsoft. Many people can install Windows ver X but only MS can activate it. The thing is with OEM windows the OEM activates it before the purchase in the factory.
There is only 1 OEM-SLP key issued to an OEM, per each version of Windows 7. As an example, every Dell running Windows 7 Home Premium installed at the factory, gets the exact same Dell OEM-SLP key. And those factory installs don't activate online. They activate against the BIOS SLIC table. Those OEM-SLP keys are all blocked from online activation by design. They are also listed all over the Internet. Try and use one of those keys on a clean install of Windows 10 and it will be rejected, they are black listed. The OEM-COA keys on the COA sticker, are likely in sequence and Microsoft keeps records of who was issued those keys. Even so, any time I have used one to reinstall Windows 7, I have had to do a phone activation. I think that's why some have had to install with the Windows 10 generic key, then do a change key to activate with them.
There are keys for Win10 Retail and the rights are transferred when you upgrade (even though you're using a custom process).
As long as the Win7 licenses are Retail, then I think that will work.
See:
Showkey - Windows 10 Forums
Clean Install Windows 10 Directly without having to Upgrade First - Windows 10 Forums
You won't need the key to reinstall Win10 on the same machine. You'll only need the key to use the rights of a Retail license to install on a new machine that replaces the old machine. By the EULA, you have to uninstall the OS on the old machine first.
Since Windows 7 is already installed on all these computers there is a 100% certain way to activate new, clean installs of Windows 10 on them (before July 29th, of course):
Clean Install Windows 10 Directly without having to Upgrade First - Windows 10 Forums
It takes less than 1 minute to copy the genuineticket.xml file using gatherosstate.exe, so why not just do that and be sure?
Put gatherosstate.exe on a thumb drive. Make folders describing the computers on the thumb drive. Run gatherosstate.exe to generate the genuineticket.xml file, move the file to the folder describing the computer.
Clean install Windows 10 on a spare hard drive, pop it in the computer, copy the genuineticket.xml file to the proper folder, activate Windows 10. Move the hard drive to the next computer, copy the next genuineticket.xml file over the previous one, activate Windows 10. There isn't even any need to do 4 separate clean installs of Windows 10.
What I would really do, though, is just make a Macrium Reflect backup image of the Windows 7, upgrade to Windows 10 and run with it. Likely you won't want to go back to Windows 7 anyway.
Alpha I have done Clean installs with machines that have the SLP keys. The thing is that you have to activate it as an upgrade the first time. Then turn around and do a Format then Clean Install.
Well yes, you can clean install on any device that already has a digital entitlement. No key is needed for that. There will be no key to detect on a clean install on a Windows 7 PC anyway, OEM-SLP or not. There is no key in the BIOS to be detected. And I'm pretty sure Windows 10 only looks for a BIOS key on a clean install. It won't look for an OS stored key unless your doing an upgrade install.
If that PC doesn't have a digital entitlement your OEM-SLP key is useless if entered manually. If it does have a digital entitlement you don't need to enter a key anyway.