Clean install on a desktop that had an Win7 Pro upgrade from XP Pro

A couple weeks ago I finally got around to installing Win10 over the top of Win7 Pro. It is not running very well. Not terrible but it seems to be a little slow and I'm thinking I'd rather do a clean install. I have already backed up my data files and also have a disk image of Win7 made prior to the Win10 upgrade.

When I did the upgrade I did not have to enter any registration/authorization numbers. Apparently the recent Win10 upgrade took it from the info in Win7.

Now as I contemplate starting fresh I am wondering if the Win10 fresh install is going to ask me for the authorization. Here is where it gets tricky. The Win7 Pro that I was running started out as either XP Pro or Vista Home Premium. I had Vista Home Premium on my machine but I had both Vista Home Premium and XP Pro disks when I was doing the Win7 Pro upgrade. I remember having to call Microsoft during the Win7 Pro upgrade to get them to make the Win7 into a Pro version because the computer was at the time running Vista Home Premium, but I wanted Pro. I had a Pro upgrade disk, and an original XP Pro disk proving I owned Pro.

So the question is - when I do the fresh install is Win10 going to ask for an upgrade code and will it accept my Win7 Pro Upgrade authorization code?

During the clean install Windows 10 will initially ask you for a product key. You click "I don't have a product key". Then it will ask you what version you want to install and you select pro. Then it will ask you for a product key a couple more times. Click "Skip" or "Do this later". When you connect to the internet, it will retrieve your digital entitlement stored on Microsoft activation servers and activate itself.

Assuming you current activation tab under settings -> Upadates and Security looks like this:

Yes. That image that you posted above shows exactly what I see.

Are you saying that if I reformat the hard drive prior to the clean install, and then do the clean install, Win10 will go to the Microsoft servers and it will find the same activation info from my same hardware?

krausternet said:

Yes. That image that you posted above shows exactly what I see.

Are you saying that if I reformat the hard drive prior to the clean install, and then do the clean install, Win10 will go to the Microsoft servers and it will find the same activation info from my same hardware?

Yep.