Will Windows 10 Installs from ISO USB still accept Windows 8 Keys?

Bree said:

In my experience an OEM Win7 key will not be accepted if you enter it when asked during the install. But if you skip entering a key and install the correct edition (Home or Pro) you can then use the OEM key to activate it by changing the installed key in Settings > Activation.

Strange, skip key during install and just enter it after the install in the activation settings. Ill still do the genuinebackup.xml thing just incase it doesnt work. Since im using a OEM key. My laptop was preinstalled

- - - Updated - - -

hsehestedt said:

I didn't have to do a thing other than to enter the key.

However, as others have pointed out, these were NOT OEM keys. These were retail license keys.

Yes mine is oem as in my laptop was preinstalled with windows

A suggestion if you have an OEM key:

1) Do an image backup of your laptop so you can revert back, just in case.

2) Perform an upgrade install and allow Windows to activate.

3) Once Windows is activated, you can then always do a clean install because it will find your Digital Activation. You will never need to enter any key this way.

hsehestedt said:

A suggestion if you have an OEM key:

1) Do an image backup of your laptop so you can revert back, just in case.

2) Perform an upgrade install and allow Windows to activate.

3) Once Windows is activated, you can then always do a clean install because it will find your Digital Activation. You will never need to enter any key this way.

Yes that's what I was thinking of I could try to, as Dennis mentioned it too. Right now my options are limited cuz I cannot even get Windows to boot, so I might just be stuck with Windows 8.1 that I download from a separate computer onto a USB. Use that to install. Then if it fixes my issues, I use the upgrade method and would have no need to do a USB ISO install of Windows 10 at that point.

I'm likely looking at more of a hardware issue but thought it was worth eliminating if a clean windows install works.

Megahertz said:

Why fix a Win 8 to then upgrade to Win 10 to then do a Win 10 clean install?
Why don't you generate the GenuineTicket.xml under win 8 and then do a clean install?

Well, you taught me something new. I just looked this up (Clean Install Windows 10 Directly without having to Upgrade First). This was something that I was completely unaware of prior to now. It seems strange that I never heard of this before, but you've given me a new tool to use in the future.

Thank you!

Megahertz said:

Why fix a Win 8 to then upgrade to Win 10 to then do a Win 10 clean install?
Why don't you generate the GenuineTicket.xml under win 8 and then do a clean install?

Well in my case it's because I cannot access my windows right now it won't boot and you need the exact computer to get a copy of the exact genuine ticket XML file to follow that tutorial. If I'm able to repair my Windows 8 and boot into it, then I agree that would be faster.
Prior to that, I was worried about potential issues with getting that to work correctly for some. It's a custom unofficial method and I could potentially see running into some problem with it activating. Even if unlikely

Megahertz said:

Don't you have a factory recover function on BIOS?

Yes, its called "Lenovo Onekey Recovery". I did that and it restored the system partition to the initial status. Put Windows back to how it was when I bought the laptop and wiped all my data. But it did not work.

So my theory was maybe an external clean installation would be more aggressive than the built-in tool, but maybe not I don't know.