Free Activation from Windows 7/8 key or upgrade to Windows 10/11 Ends

dalchina said:

= pretty soon we won't be able to log in to our own PCs without current government-verified id ?

yeah i think in the future it is possible and the grounds are there attestation is authenticating by saying you are who you are and in computers it is the same and you need a TPM to do it.

dalchina said:

Possible further twist to this saga: now a suggestion that activation rights based on Win 7/8 upgrades may not be transferable to a new PC - thoughts? experiences?

Getting new motherboard, have Win 10 Pro, would like to keep install

Yup. I've got 5 upgrade Home > Pro retail keys (4 x Win7, 1 x Win 8.x). I have used these upgrade keys randomly and indiscriminately over the last few years on multiple devices

I currently have 7 devices, all upgraded using the keys (but note I only had 5 keys in total !!) and don't have a clue which key was used on which machine. I am convinced MS didn't give a stuff, as long as the key was valid, it let it go. All are still working flawlessly

Until ....

I bough a new laptop yesterday with Win 11 Home ..... NONE, NOT ONE of the upgrade keys were successful, none were accepted.

dalchina said:

Had you heard MS is taking over Activision Blizzard? (Major games franchise.. Call of Duty etc). Was on news today...

Game on MS!

Yes i have mentioned it a few times they have been in the procedure to acquire it for a while, it is the biggest game company with the most of the market share under tencent.

Monopoly.

I too have been trying keys because i have a whole lot of keys to try and i have some laptops that i have had for a few years got from an old job that they were throwing away but they never had chargers which i finally got around to buying some. With various disc Installs and keys on the computers.

None of the keys tried worked. Didn't try the OEM keys yet but its the last shot. They are xp and vista keys but i don't want to have to go through several OS to try it as those shouldn't work past vista all though have not tried.

Hello @Naj Snarf,

Naj Snarf said:

How do i find my Office login?

If you are talking about finding Activation / Registration Keys in general, then Belarc Advisor is great to retrieve this sort of information:

> Belarc Advisor

If you want to go further with this, then I suggest that you start your own Thread as this is off topic for this Thread.

I hope this helps.

Made an edit as I mucked the original post up a bit

Keep in mind that OEM Windows 7 and earlier use a BIOS SLIC table. Thats what's used during installation when using "Custom OEM" install media. Standard Windows 7 etc install media won't look for or use the SLIC Tables. Those PC get a generic OEM SLP key.

Those OEM SLP keys won't work when entered manually. They are blocked on the activation server. The key on the OEM COA sticker is a unique key, but requires online activation, on first time use with the stated OS version on the sticker.
Windows 10 install media won't look for, or use the OEM SLIC table. And from the sounds of it, won't accept the OEM COA keys either now. It was only from Windows 8 onwards that the OEM embedded key was unique to that device. And was one that was looked for and read by Windows 10 standard install media. Those Windows 7 and 8 OEM keys aren't likely looked for anymore when using current Windows 10 install media.
I was a Microsoft MVP / Insider MVP. As a result I have more Technet / MSDN keys than I'll even need or use in my lifetime. And all my current hardware has multiple DL's for just about any version of Windows 10. It makes it pretty well impossible to test out these new developments. But I thought I'd pass on my insight into it anyway.

SIW2 said:

...There is a key in the MSDM table for win8 and newer.
I dont know if manually entering the msdm key after installation would work....

Changing the installed key to a valid Windows 7 or Windows 8 key used to work and activate Windows 10, it was the last remaining way after MS turned off the free activation on upgrading from Win7/8 to Win10.

It still worked for me on 28th September, as can be seen in post #1.
MS have turned this activation off now, I tested and confirmed that in post #15