New
#50
(I must confess I did not read the entire thread.)
I have 10 Windows 7 Ultimate licenses, but they came from my BizSpark license years ago. They should be MSDN versions.
If I upgrade two different machines (which had different Windows 7 Keys) to Windows 10, they end up with the same Windows 10 key. All the machines end up with the same Windows 10 key. So later on, when I try to install Windows 10 on different machines and try to use the same license, it won't work will it?
Do you know what Microsoft did in this regard? anyone?
Hello Picasso, and welcome to Ten Forums. :)
If the two W7 PCs have different product keys, then each PC will have its own unique digital license on Microsoft's activation server.
When you install Windows 10 on a PC in the future, its digital licenses will automatically be used to activate the PC.
Thanks for that, I understand, but this is what is happening.
I have a Win 7 install with a key of xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-1111
And another with a key of xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-2222
I upgrade both to Win 10 and the key (on both) is xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-3333
If I get the Win 10 keys from each of the upgrades, in the future, if I build a new machine or alter an existing one, I can install Win 10 using the Win 10 keys from each machine. But if the Win 10 key is the same for all the upgraded machines, can I only install 1 license in the future?
Or am I being dumb... Do I just use the original Win 7 key when installing Win 10 in the future?
Thanks,
Paul
@picasso566,
Maybe a simple phrase will help you. Windows product keys do not get upgraded to Windows 10. Computers get upgraded to Windows 10. When you upgrade a computer to Windows 10 from Windows 7/8/8.1, absolutely nothing happens to the Windows 7/8/8.1 product key that was on it before. It is that computer itself that gets the license/entitlement for Windows 10 - not the Windows 7/8/8.1 product key. That why all upgrades to Windows 10 get the same product key for the same version of Windows 10 - because it is the computer - and it's unique Hardware ID, not the product key - that gets the license/entitlement for Windows 10.
The Windows 7/8/8.1 product key only provides the basis for issuing the first digital license/entitlement to that computer. It's like showing a photo ID to get a lifetime pass to a park issued in your name. You show your ID to get the pass the first time, but it is the pass that gets you into the park over and over again - not your photo ID anymore.
is there a way to script this instead of using the tool?
I will start a new thread but thought this maybe the right place.
I work for a company that we get vendor pc's all the time. We need to be able to get the key from the bios and from the registry. With this we can then see if there is a key in the bios and if it is being used in the OS...
example will be vendors sending in Windows 7 pc's but win10 key is in bios... we know we can attempt to upgrade.
thanks for any help...