Windows 10: Built new computer, running unactivated Win10 Home, have Win7 Pro key

LeoBloom said:

I was initially thinking of buying a Win10 Home key, but I realized I still have a Win7 Pro key I purchased that I have never upgraded to Win10 and is not currently in use.

Two questions

• Can I use the Win7 key to activate Win10 (or is that no longer an option)
• Will Win10 Home turn into Win10 Pro (assuming I can still use key)

Hi there
@LeoBloom

Free upgrades from W7 appear to be still working -- it could depend on how old the iso you download from the ms site when creating the media tool.

What you have to do at least ONCE though on the new hardware install W7 and make sure it's activated -- don't bother installing everything you had on W7 - you just need to get an activated version of W7 on the new hardware so the activation servers when you install W10 can create a digital licence for the new system.

If W7 won't activate on the new hardware (it should if it's a RETAIL version) just activate by phone - that's usually a 100% quick and painless task to do. Then after installation take a backup - just in case you need to do the exercise again or something goes horribly wrong with W10 install. You can use FREE MACRIUM for quick backup.

Sometimes you'll find W10 HOME is installed by default -- the store will upgrade this free to W10 PRO if your original W7 was PRO or above.

You can "Fix" the W10 install to prompt for which W10 version you want to install -- search for it on the forms --it involves extracting the .ISO file and adding a small text file called ei.cfg

Can't remember the link but it's somewhere on the Forum.

Note it won't work (usually) if you simply enter the old W7 key on the new hardware without W7 being activated first. You can try but since a quick W7 install only takes around 10 mins why bother to take the risk. Note Don't bother with any extra drivers etc - simply do a base install activate and exit. Then you can do your W10 install.

Cheers
jimbo

Thanks jimbo -- I have already activated my Windows 10 Pro digital license, but I did not mention that the W7 key I used was activated at least once in the past (on a different computer), so good thing to note for whoever else is reading this thread trying to do the same thing