Clean Install Windows 10 Directly without having to Upgrade First  

gzt7d8 said:

Shawn, this is a great tutorial, thanks. I don't know if you recall my issues with the clean install earlier but in short, I went through the upgrade path to Windows 10, got the upgrade activated. Later I did a clean install and it wouldn't activate. So I had to go back and reinstall Win 8.1 and go to the upgrade path again and that is where I am at today.

My question is can I do this step from the current Windows 10 installation that I'm running on? I am gun shy of trying another clean installation for fear it won't activate again.

Thanks for listening.

Greg

Hello Greg, :)

This can be done if the current Windows is activated to create a gatherosstate.exe file from, or you already created a gatherosstate.exe file previously to use.

Sometimes it will take a day or so to automatically activate due to however busy the activation servers are at the time. If you rushed to see the second upgrade you may not have allowed enough time for 10 to activate itself. The gatherostate however makes for a good safety net!

Night Hawk said:

Sometimes it will take a day or so to automatically activate due to however busy the activation servers are at the time. If you rushed to see the second upgrade you may not have allowed enough time for 10 to activate itself. The gatherostate however makes for a good safety net!

I attempted the clean install about 30 days after I successfully completed the upgrade from Windows 8.1. I gave the clean install it a little more than a week to activate before contacting MS support for the 2nd time and got a "so sorry you'll have to start all over again"....grrr.

This method looks promising, I'm going to get my ducks in a row and try it out soon.

Thanks!

Dch48 said:

I used this method to clean install Win 10 in a dual boot configuration with Win 7. I copied the file from my Win 10 DVD (I will not use USB booting), ran it on the Windows 7 desktop, then copied the GenuineTicket.xml to a flash drive. I had already created a new partition on my hard drive. I then booted from the DVD, did a custom install telling it to install in the new partition and skipping the product key insertion (it asked twice). After Win 10 was up and running, I copied and pasted the ticket file to the location given in the tutorial, rebooted, and voila, Windows is activated. I got Windows 10 free without losing Windows 7.

You are violating the EULA by having both installed and activated at the same time. Eventually one or both will become deactivated.

You are suppose to no longer have Windows 7 activated as long as you have the free Windows 10 installed and activated.

Dch48 said:

I doubt I'm violating anything but we'll see what happens. They said the machine was eligible to receive Windows 10 free and that's just what happened. I never saw anything that said you couldn't keep both.

You are. See: Clean Install Windows 10 Directly without having to Upgrade First

Shawn's correct, what MS needs to do is build in technical backstops to augment the EULA... currently one can easily bypass the EULA. Both Windows and Office... This is not the 1900's where it appears it relied on people's consciousness.

Eventually they'll get flagged when checking in with the Microsoft activation servers, and both will be deactivated.

This is why I'm hoping they'll listen to my warning about violating the EULA like that.