Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 10565 Insider

BillyBob said:

Just hurry up will ya, this is driving me crazy.

Sheesh, BillyBob, I've only been up an hour! :)

I'll be trying it in an hour or so . . . as soon as the household chores are finished.

Kari said:

OK, this is how and what I tested now:

1. Clean install Windows 10 Pro Build 10565 on a machine which had never before had any version of Windows. When setup asked for a product key, I gave a never before used Windows 8.1 Pro retail product key. Key was accepted and activation successful.
2. As I had no more "virgin" hardware, I created a new Hyper-V virtual machine, clean installed Windows 10 Pro Build 10565, entered the same Windows 8.1 Pro retail product key as above in #1. Key was again accepted and activation successful.
3. One more new vm, clean installed Windows 10 Pro Build 10565, entered a Windows 8.1 Pro retail product key which has been used multiple times, last time on this very PC I am using at the moment for a clean install which was then immediately upgraded to Windows 10 Pro. This key was now accepted on the new vm for a clean install of Windows 10 Pro and activation was successful.
4. Third new vm, this time clean installing Windows 10 Pro RTM Build 10240, trying to use any Windows 7 or 8.1 retail keys I have, used or unused, the key was not accepted and Windows could not be activated.

Conclusion, only based on this very simple set of test installs:

• Build 10565 can be activated with a valid Windows 8.1 (and most probably 7 & 8) product key, also when clean installing on a new machine.
• The RTM build, and most probably all builds prior to build 10565 need to be activated with a valid Windows 10 key, product keys from qualifying old operating systems will not work.

Kari

Thank you for the test, Kari! Now I know the real skinny and don't have to do the same test. #1 above tells me that I was wrong in my reading of that "article", so now I want to see the article in its original state.

BillyBob said:

Just hurry up will ya, this is driving me crazy.

Kari's already done the test! And succeeded in installing on a virgin machine with a virgin key and it worked.

Wynona said:

Kari's already done the test! And succeeded in installing on a virgin machine with a virgin key and it worked.

And that rocks.. IMO. This will make life easier for users in the future. I just thought.. what would happen if you swapped out the motherboard and tried this?

Kari said:

<Snip>

Another question is then that it also looks that especially the retail keys, both Windows 7 and 8.1 can seemingly be reused. This is the part I do not understand; it looks at the moment that I could install Windows 10 on several virgin computers (= new hardware, never had any qualifying OS) using one and same 7 or 8.1 key. Buy one key, install on 10 computers. That is in my opinion wrong and not as MS had intended. We'll see if this remains as it is now or if it will change.

Kari

When I read the full extent of your test, Kari, that's the first thing that popped into my head. This is the second time Microsoft has overlooked the obvious . . . the first time was when those who hadn't "upgraded" to the Technical Preview from 7 or 8.1 were able to stop the Insider Program and were now seemingly "legit".

Kari said:

OK, this is how and what I tested now:

1. Clean install Windows 10 Pro Build 10565 on a machine which had never before had any version of Windows. When setup asked for a product key, I gave a never before used Windows 8.1 Pro retail product key. Key was accepted and activation successful.
2. <Snip>Kari

I'm wondering what would happen if one tried to install RTM Build 10240 this way?

Wynona said:

I'm wondering what would happen if one tried to install RTM Build 10240 this way?

Dear Wynona, see the highlighted parts in the the same post of mine you quoted:

Kari said:

OK, this is how and what I tested now:

1. Clean install Windows 10 Pro Build 10565 on a machine which had never before had any version of Windows. When setup asked for a product key, I gave a never before used Windows 8.1 Pro retail product key. Key was accepted and activation successful.
2. As I had no more "virgin" hardware, I created a new Hyper-V virtual machine, clean installed Windows 10 Pro Build 10565, entered the same Windows 8.1 Pro retail product key as above in #1. Key was again accepted and activation successful.
3. One more new vm, clean installed Windows 10 Pro Build 10565, entered a Windows 8.1 Pro retail product key which has been used multiple times, last time on this very PC I am using at the moment for a clean install which was then immediately upgraded to Windows 10 Pro. This key was now accepted on the new vm for a clean install of Windows 10 Pro and activation was successful.
4. Third new vm, this time clean installing Windows 10 Pro RTM Build 10240, trying to use any Windows 7 or 8.1 retail keys I have, used or unused, the key was not accepted and Windows could not be activated.

Conclusion, only based on this very simple set of test installs:

• Build 10565 can be activated with a valid Windows 8.1 (and most probably 7 & 8) product key, also when clean installing on a new machine.
• The RTM build, and most probably all builds prior to build 10565 need to be activated with a valid Windows 10 key, product keys from qualifying old operating systems will not work.

Kari