New
#1
I was thinking about this as it relates to machines I have at work.
We purchase our computers via Dell, and we just buy them with the OEM OS license for Windows 8.x pro. Reinstalling the OS is a cakewalk in 8.x, as I can install, then run sysprep, capture the image with an imaging tool using /generalize and an unattended.xml file with retained drivers. I can then put that image onto any of my Dell's with the embedded OS license and it will simply activate.
However, now that I have 35 deployed machines, and 10 new laptops in boxes, I have to "upgrade" them to 10 within a year, to get their hardware values recorded by MS, or just forsake moving them off 8.x. Well, not everybody wants 10 right now. We haven't verified it to work across our systems, etc. It will just get messy 2 years from now tracking which computers "will" run Windows 10 and activate and which ones will not.
Why, oh why, won't Windows 10 simply read the embedded 8.x license key and just use it. Obviously if you have a machine with a key embedded in the BIOS, you are a legit licensed user? Probably because you only have a year in which to do it. Just remove the 1 year restriction and let people move when they are ready..
So, I'm onto testing. I loaded Windows 10 clean to a machine that was NOT upgraded to 10 and it would not activate.
Now, I am putting my 8.1 image back onto the box, will upgrade, and get it activated. Then clean install 10 and see what happens.