Windows 10: Preparing to Upgrade One Billion Devices

bromanbro said:

Indeed, but if on July 29th, MS asks 7 users to provide their COA code, they'd find many cancelled reservations, as the COA stickers were prone to melt, and at this point, lots of people probably misplaced/lost them (7 was 2009 after all).

Mine melted years ago. It was placed near my laptop's heat exhaust, and since the COA stickers are shitty quality, it's now unreadable, but the laptop sticker adjacent to it (with laptop serial etc) is 100% fine.

All MS needs to do is ensure that side loaders don't work in 10, so if Daz Windows 7 users upgrade, then they'd be upgrading to a non-genuine Windows 10.

If it's possible to mod/flash the BIOS to insert SLIC keys, then yeah, MS might have to require COA stickers from 7 users.

Some manufacturers have started putting the COA stickers in under the battery on laptops so they last longer and don't get scratched or rubbed off. Yeah, if they ask for the actual code on the sticker a lot of Windows 7 users will be left hanging in the breeze. I'm thinking what's in the BIOS by itself won't be enough though if you clean installed. There will be no product code at all stored anywhere for Windows 7 on that PC.

groze said:

@alphanumeric

Here is what an upgraded Dell oem_slp system shows


Windows Product Key Information
Product Name: Windows 10 Home Insider Preview
Product ID: Removed for privacy
Installed Key: Removed for privacy
Original Key: Removed for privacy
Original Edition: Windows 7 HomePremium OEM:SLP
OEM Key: Windows 7 OEM marker present in firmware


On a clean install of windows 10 I don't think showkey can see the OEM marker. I think if windows 10 can see the OEM marker it should have no problems.

Dell forums has reported that you wouldn't need to change key to upgrade to windows 10 if you are using an OEM:SLP install.

I think there is going to be reverse issue. Those who have changed there key to what is on the back of the machine may not be able to activate windows 10. May have to make a phone call to activate windows 10. I am basing this on what I experienced in my testing.

Aren't COA keys unique OEM codes by all intents and purposes? Why would a phone call be required if it can only be used on 1 machine at a time and has a unique code (unlike SLP keys)?

The W.7 hacks slip in sideloaders with OEM SLP keys to fool Windows into thinking that it's an OEM SLP installation. People who use COA keys shouldn't be the problem at all.

ps: I have a clean Insider partition on laptop as well, and that install CANNOT see OEM info. Doesn't even know my vendor lol (at least in System Settings in CP/"About" in Settings).

groze said:

bromanbro

Here is my story. I got a hold of the windows 7 retail version.

So, what I did is change the OEM install to windows 7 retail version and it activated & validate without any issue. Then I upgraded this to windows 10 10162. Even when Microsoft got the activation fixed, my system wouldn't activate. I think windows 10 got confused on what I had previously installed.

What I did is the reverse. I upgraded the Windows 7 oem_SLP and the pre-activation status remained before even signing up with a Microsoft Account. I keep the windows 7 retail on another partition.


As I said before in another post,
I haven't tried doing a clean install of windows 7 retail then upgrading to windows 10. That my next test.

Haha, I see I see. Well good, because if MS wants me to input my COA sticker, then they better fix my sticker first >_>

groze said:

@alphanumeric

Here is what an upgraded Dell oem_slp system shows


Windows Product Key Information
Product Name: Windows 10 Home Insider Preview
Product ID: Removed for privacy
Installed Key: Removed for privacy
Original Key: Removed for privacy
Original Edition: Windows 7 HomePremium OEM:SLP
OEM Key: Windows 7 OEM marker present in firmware


On a clean install of windows 10 I don't think showkey can see the OEM marker. I think if windows 10 can see the OEM marker it should have no problems.

Dell forums has reported that you wouldn't need to change key to upgrade to windows 10 if you are using an OEM:SLP install.

I think there is going to be reverse issue. Those who have changed there key to what is on the back of the machine may not be able to activate windows 10. May have to make a phone call to activate windows 10. I am basing this on what I experienced in my testing.

It will still see the Windows 7 OEM marker present in firmware, its still there. But the Original key shown won't be a Windows 7 key. It will be the Windows 10 install key. Original Edition won't show as Windows 7 either.

bromanbro said:

Aren't COA keys unique OEM codes by all intents and purposes? Why would a phone call be required if it can only be used on 1 machine at a time and has a unique code (unlike SLP keys)?

The W.7 hacks slip in sideloaders with OEM SLP keys to fool Windows into thinking that it's an OEM SLP installation. People who use COA keys shouldn't be the problem at all.

ps: I have a clean Insider partition on laptop as well, and that install CANNOT see OEM info. Doesn't even know my vendor lol (at least in System Settings in CP/"About" in Settings).

The keys on the COA stickers are unique OEM keys. The way I understood it though is they aren't entered into the list on the Microsoft activation servers because they may never be used. It also forces you do a phone activation the first time you use it. This lets Microsoft verify you used it on the PC it shipped with. After that I think it just activates like normal on the next reinstall. I haven't seen anything, other than somebodies speculation, that says that Windows 10 will accept Windows 7 or Windows 8 keys? Up until build 10130 Showkey showed Windows 10 as using Windows 8.1 preview keys. Build 10162 now uses Windows 10 pre-release keys. My windows 10 key changed at some point when I went from 10130 > 10158 . 10159 > 10162. What ever happens when you do the free upgrade, whether you have to read off a key to Microsoft or not, I think you will get a new Windows 10 key. That key will be the one you use to reinstall Windows 10 when the time comes to do that.

groze said:

@alphanumeric




I wanted to try the 32 bit iso version of windows 7 sp1. The oem key activated online without any issue. I could possible have some issue because the motherboad has been replaced under warranty. I am not worried about it since I switched backed to the 64 bit version of windows 7 oem_slp, I most likely will never need to use the key.


On the reply to me.

The windows 7 retail key when I changed the windows 7 oem to windows retail it activated & validated without any issues. When I upgraded the Windows 7 retail to windows 10 10162 preview it wouldn't activate even after switching to a Microsoft account and doing a verification. Do you know why it windows 10 wouldn't activate?

If you reinstalled with the correct media and actually used the OEM SLP activation, it will activate automatically against the BIOS SLIC table. If you use the code on the COA sticker, your not using the OEM-SLP activation anymore. You switch to the normal online activation. The BIOS SLIC table isn't used anymore.

EDIT: I don't know why Windows 10 wouldn't activate?