Hi!
I briefly upgraded to 10 a few years ago when it was free. But with the torrent of issues I downgraded back to 8.1...
Will my license simply work if I upgrade again? In the meanwhile I upgraded pretty much all HW components.
Not if your original license is OEM. If a retail license, you're fine.
Or you might be lucky, I suppose... and you could even try pleading with MS if you have difficulty. (Your regional acitvation centre should have a toll free number).
Link Microsoft Account to Windows 10 Digital License
Use Activation Troubleshooter in Windows 10
Windows upgrades are still free for licensed windows 7, 8, and 8.1.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...ardware-change
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...troubleshooter
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...-phone-numbers
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...ws-10-activate
https://support.microsoft.com/en-in/...ws-10-activate
If you have a valid 8.1 license and your computer is still activated with current hardware setup, you can safely upgrade to Windows 10. The license will be transferred automatically.
Just to be on the safe side, do an upgrade once and make sure your activation status is valid and linked to your MS account. After that you can safely clean install Windows 10 later and the system will activate automatically, even without entering any keys during setup. Just make sure you install the correct Edition (eg. Home, Pro, Enterprise) though.
You can also extract all your valid keys from your Windows 8.1 installation and use them to activate Windows 10 later.
I do this kind of stuff daily at work, because we get a lot of old computers with valid Win7 or Win8 installations and we upgrade (secure wipe the disk and clean install) them all to latest Windows 10. Works for Windows 7, 8.0, 8.1 --> 10 and for both retail and OEM, and Home/Pro. does not matter.
What type of issues did you have ? And with what version ?
1909 is solid as a Rock
1903 was/is too.
Last edited by AddRAM; 10 Jun 2020 at 03:28.
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