Digital License on clean install

I purchased W7 "upgrade from Vista" CD years ago, and then upgraded to 10 no problem when it came out. I have actually formatted since then but don't really remember how I activated it, if I used the W7 product key or what. This was all on one machine. Now that machine is going out and am planning to install on a new laptop. I have the W10 installation on a USB drive but am not sure how or if I am allowed to install it on a new machine. Will I use the W7 product key, or will the digital license transfer once I have signed in to my Microsoft account? Or will Microsoft not allow me to do this at all? Thanks.

Strickley speaking the digitail licence is tied to the hardware of the pc. Normally when installing you skip the serial number and then it activates from MS servers you can use the win7 key as its been used to upgrade so no longer valid. All you can do is get the latest USb from https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/soft...load/windows10 install on new pc and see what happens you may need to try ringing MS or worse case buy 10

It is not a question of MS allowing it. In many ( perhaps most) countries, it is not legal to tie software to a particular piece of hardware. If you only bought one copy, it can only be used on one machine at a time.

the win7 key as its been used to upgrade so no longer valid.

Not true. I used the same win7 key after changing mobo, without any difficulty. It is a retail key, so maybe that simplifies it and avoids a phone call.

So my plan was to uninstall it on the PC its on now, and reinstall on the new laptop. So it would only be on one device.

That being said I was hoping to uninstall on the old machine after the install was complete on the new one, in case I run into any problems on the new machine.

Is that possible?

kiteman said:

So my plan was to uninstall it on the PC its on now, and reinstall on the new laptop. So it would only be on one device.

How old is the 'new' laptop? Was it originally supplied with the manufacturer's OEM Windows pre-installed? If so, was that Windows 8 or later? If the answer to that is yes, then the laptop is entitled to run Windows 10 in it's own right - no need to transfer anything.

Any machine built for and supplied with Windows 8 or later has a key for its Windows embedded in the firmware. A clean install of Windows 10 will look for that key, using it to choose the version of Windows 10 to install (Home or Pro) and to activate it.

The new laptop does not come with an OS installed. It has not arrived yet. That's why I wanted to take the previously purchased W7 for my current PC, remove it from that PC and put it on the new laptop (but obviously just reusing the key/license and actually installing 10 and not 7).