Windows 10 Activation

bobkn said:

So much for the EULA, or at least what I thought was the EULA.

Good news, though.

A more accurate statement is probably rhat MS are turning a blind eye to oem transfer, as they have not changed the EULA or even are not admitting that it is being permitted.

Just because it can be done, does not mean it is formally sanctioned.

I suspect MS do not want to specifically sanction this, as it gives the legal freedom to go after people engaging on wholesale piracy activities. In the end, they are not interested in policing individual users as I am certain the cost of doing so will far outweigh the minor revenue loss.

We could debate this endlessly, but I know licence transfer by MS account is hit or miss, and I have never seen a discernable pattern to indicate when and why it will work, and when it will not.

Trying to downgrade it from Win10 Pro to WIn10 Home as we speak using the method in your post @steve108 ...

How would activation work then? Once it's downgraded to Win10 Home, should it just detect the embedded Win8 Home key and just self-activate?

Darkstrike said:

Trying to downgrade it from Win10 Pro as we speak using the method in your post...

How would activation work then? Once it's downgraded to Win10 Home, should it just detect the embedded Win8 Home key and just self-activate?

I believe that's correct.
If not you can try entering a generic Windows 10 Home key, then the 8 key if necessary.

steve108 said:

I believe that's correct.
If not you can try entering a generic Windows 10 Home key, then the 8 key if necessary.

I can't really 'enter' the Win8 key though...it's an embedded key, so I have no idea what it is? The laptop just has that little 'Windows 8' logo sticker on the bottom?

Darkstrike said:

I can't really 'enter' the Win8 key though...it's an embedded key, so I have no idea what it is? The laptop just has that little 'Windows 8' logo sticker on the bottom?

May not even need it as it should activate if it's embedded, so let's wait and see what happens.

Darkstrike said:

I can't really 'enter' the Win8 key though...it's an embedded key, so I have no idea what it is? The laptop just has that little 'Windows 8' logo sticker on the bottom?

steve108 said:

May not even need it as it should activate if it's embedded, so let's wait and see what happens.

Neither the in-place upgrade or the installed Windows will read or use the embedded key. That is only ever read and used to activate when you boot the W10 install media and do a clean install.

When you downgrade Pro to Home with the tutorial Steve108 gave you it should end up as an install of Windows10 Home with the generic Home key installed. If this Win8 PC has ever been upgraded to Win10 before then it will already have a digital licence for W10 Home on the activation servers. This will activate the new install of Home.

If this PC has no existing digital licence for W10 Home, then entering the W8 Home key should activate Windows and get a digital licence for the PC. You can read the embedded W8 key with ShowKeyPlus

Bree said:

Neither the in-place upgrade or the installed Windows will read or use the embedded key. That is only ever read and used to activate when you boot the W10 install media and do a clean install. When you downgrade Pro to Home with the tutorial Steve108 gave you it should end up as an install of Windows10 Home with the generic Home key installed. If this Win8 PC has ever been upgraded to Win10 before then it will already have a digital licence for W10 Home on the activation servers. This will activate the new install of Home.
If this PC has no existing digital licence for W10 Home, then entering the W8 Home key should activate Windows and get a digital licence for the PC. You can read the embedded W8 key with ShowKeyPlus

It was running Win10 Home the other day, haha....

Essentially, I was asked by him to move his data over to this new laptop for him....but it was a spare laptop I owned that I was selling, so I had already installed Win10 Home on it and had it up on Facebook Marketplace to sell when he told me he wanted to buy it, so it's already been activated on the MS servers once with Win10 home....here's hoping it will just reactivate automatically!!!

It should in that case.

Darkstrike said:

...so it's already been activated on the MS servers once with Win10 home....here's hoping it will just reactivate automatically!!!

Once a digital licence for a PC is recorded on the activation servers it's permanent. Once you have your W10 Home on it, then it should activate automatically.