Why was I not asked for a product key when upgrading to Win 10?

NavyLCDR said:

What @NeedUpgradeHelp is experiencing now is the same thing that tens, if not hundreds of millions of users experienced with the upgrade from Windows 7 to 10. It is just the standard upgrade with nothing special about it at all.

Nothing like random consistence, but no surprise with M$.

I required a Product Key for both a clean install on an old Dell laptop completed months ago and for in-place upgrade of an Acer Aspire laptop I upgraded last month.

So the OP'er should smile and be happy if his product is successfully activated.

W10 Tweaker said:

I believe there are some conditions in which a Windows 7 PC will have a Digital License and likely that is what you're experiencing now. If you have a Digital License, your PC is now registered on MS update servers and you should not require a key for updates any longer.

Check your activation settings and you will likely see this;


Attachment 263846

Yes, that's exactly what it says on my computer: "Windows is activated with a digital license"

Thank you, everyone, for your help and wisdom!

How did you upgrade? Win7 keys being used on a downloaded ISO no longer work as I discovered a month ago but using the Microsoft Media Creation tool allowed me to upgrade my legit registered and activated Win7 for free and no keys were asked for. It also assigned new product keys to my fresh upgrade of Win10 Pro as well. Magic Jellybean Key finder provided all the info I required.
After the upgrade I wanted a clean install so I downloaded the ISO and totally erased and reinstalled with the selection of I have no keys being selected to test and it installed and activated. I retested with the keys I obtained with MJ and it was again happy and activated. This PC never had 10 on it before.