Using Win 7 key in a new Win 10 install, impact on old machine

Hi there
Actually the issue is quite clear -- You ARE allowed to retain W7 as archive / backup and it will stay activated. You can't use it AND the new W10 concurrently -- the W10 upgrade is actually meant to be installed on the old machine. You can restore W7 of course if the W10 system doesn't pan out as you want. That's why it (the W7 system) won't de-activate.

The real problem is that the whole activation process with Digital Licensing has got a bit bonkers.

Over to you with what you do -- the answer though is W7 WON'T deactivate - just that you can't use it legally as well as the W10 system even if you move W10 to a new machine (which if it's retail or updated from a W7 retail edition) IS quite legal.

Added : The same issue also if you decide to move / copy your W10 installation to a NEW / different machine -- this is allowed legally if W10 is a retail copy -- the old W10 won't de-activate but same rules --only 1 Copy allowed to be used while you can have as many backups / archives as you like of course.

Adobe used to have a better system -- with the old Photoshop program you could xfer the license to a new machine -- the product would automatically de-activate on the old one AND you had to make the xfer from old to new machine as well.--no limit to nr of xfers between machines but the system worked. I suppose Ms didn't want endless zillion of activation problem phone calls though if they had tried this model.

Cheers
jimbo

FatTonyBubatz said:

Googled this to death and cant find anyone asking the question .

I have an existing Win 7 Ultimate computer, and I've built a new Ryzen box and installed Win 10 Pro on it .

I wanted to try and use the key from Win 7 , to see if that will activate.

The only concern I have is if it does activate, will that cause the Win 7 machine to automatically deactivate.

I need the old machine to stay up and running cleanly for a while. Deactivation probably wouldn't hose it completely, but I'd rather not deal with that .

It won't deactivate automatically - why do you need it be activated when you are installing Win 10?

You can uninstall the key which will allow you to transfer it - keep a Win 7 image as a backup, but embrace Win 10 (it's the best thing since sliced bread... just joking, but really it's not bad.)


PS: Just thinking you may be concerned that transferring to a new machine invalidates the original - well it does not - you can swap between machines... with retail licences the original PC's hardware is linked to the key (even with Win 7) and can be re-activated subsequently.