Moving Windows Install to New PC (W7 to W10)

I'm about to upgrade my PC soon and I decided that the OS should be upgraded too. I'm currently on W7 Pro x64 and I plan to get the W10 Pro x64.

My concern is that I don't have a product key for W10 yet, but I heard that you can still install W10 even with a W7/8 product key. Is this still applicable currently? Assuming that it's still allowed, what would I do to make sure that my current product key is not tied to the this PC anymore so I can do those steps?

Current PC:
Intel G3258
Gigabyte Z97-HD3
12 GB RAM
Samsung 850 Evo 250 GB (current boot drive, will reuse this for the upgrade)

New PC:
Ryzen 5 1600X
Gigabyte AB350-Gaming 3
16 GB RAM

Install Windows 7 on the new PC with the existing product key - assuming it is a retail product key and not OEM. You might have to call MS to activate it if the Windows 7 product key has been blocked from automatic online activation. Then either upgrade that to Windows 10 or do this:
Clean Install Windows 10 Directly without having to Upgrade First Installation Upgrade Tutorials

Now, somebody is going to come along and post that you only have to install Windows 10 and activate it with the Windows 7 product key. That might work. But if there is a problem with the Windows 7 product key, like it is blocked from automatic internet activation, it is much easier to solve with Windows 7 installed than Windows 10.

Another option is to upgrade the old computer to Windows 10. Establish a digital license linked to a MS account. Then move the digital license to a clean install of Windows 10 on the new computer via the MS account:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/20530

Finally, you should do the upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10 before December 31 because there is reasonable speculation out there that Microsoft will stop the free upgrades on December 31.

NavyLCDR said:

Install Windows 7 on the new PC with the existing product key - assuming it is a retail product key and not OEM. You might have to call MS to activate it if the Windows 7 product key has been blocked from automatic online activation. Then either upgrade that to Windows 10 or do this:
Clean Install Windows 10 Directly without having to Upgrade First Installation Upgrade Tutorials
Now, somebody is going to come along and post that you only have to install Windows 10 and activate it with the Windows 7 product key. That might work. But if there is a problem with the Windows 7 product key, like it is blocked from automatic internet activation, it is much easier to solve with Windows 7 installed than Windows 10.

The W7 key that I have is a retail one so hopefully it won't be as much of a problem. So I just need to reinstall W7 on the new PC and follow the steps on that link? There's nothing to touch on the current one? I might just have to face with activation issues where I might need to call MS?

Finally, you should do the upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10 before December 31 because there is reasonable speculation out there that Microsoft will stop the free upgrades on December 31.

I'm planning to upgrade in the next couple of days so the deadline shouldn't be much of a worry.

Rain08 said:

The W7 key that I have is a retail one so hopefully it won't be as much of a problem. So I just need to reinstall W7 on the new PC and follow the steps on that link? There's nothing to touch on the current one? I might just have to face with activation issues where I might need to call MS?

I'm planning to upgrade in the next couple of days so the deadline shouldn't be much of a worry.

In order to comply with the Windows 7 End Users License Agreement (EULA), you have to remove Windows 7 from the old computer. You have 1 license for Windows which means only 1 Windows is allowed to be installed. However, removing the old installation (or not) will not affect the activation of the new installation. The number of times the product key has be reused in a certain period of time determines when it will get blocked from online automatic activation - not the actual existence of a previously installed Windows. There is no real way to "deactivate" a computer on Microsoft Activation Servers when you remove an OS.