Download Windows 10 Insider ISO File

alphanumeric · 17 Jul 2015

If you upgrade Windows 8.1 to 10240 it "should" activate, from what I've seen posted. Up to you though, I can't guarantee it.

Gary · 17 Jul 2015

Gary said:

If you use the iso to upgrade 10162 to 10240, it will activate.

This I can guarantee. it worked for me.

alphanumeric · 17 Jul 2015

Gary said:

This I can guarantee. it worked for me.

Thanks for the confirmation. I was pretty sure it would work, just didn't want to put my foot in my mouth, If he tried it and it didn't work.

smileye · 17 Jul 2015

alphanumeric said:

If you upgrade Windows 8.1 to 10240 it "should" activate, from what I've seen posted. Up to you though, I can't guarantee it.

i didn't upgrade, did a clean install
there's the mistake i think

Charlie · 17 Jul 2015

alphanumeric said:

If you upgrade Windows 8.1 to 10240 it "should" activate, from what I've seen posted. Up to you though, I can't guarantee it.

That's what they MS wants to happen right. Better work cause the clock is ticking! 12+17= 29/7

Kari · 17 Jul 2015

Gary said:

If you use the iso to upgrade 10162 to 10240, it will activate.

Gary said:

This I can guarantee. it worked for me.

I think it is important to clarify that this of course only works if the earlier build you are upgrading from was already activated before MS blocked all the Windows 10 keys and closed the activation servers.

Feel free to test it but it's like this: if you now clean install 10162 or 10166 or any other of the earlier builds, it will not be activated to start with, and again when upgraded to build 10240 it will not be activated.

jimbo45 · 18 Jul 2015

Hi there

I found the best way to activate was to use a version that was already activated --one of my builds 10240 was already activated as it was updated BEFORE the servers were locked, and take an image.

Now RESTORE to another machine with something like Acronis -- these programs now have "Universal Restore" mechanisms in them so you CAN restore to unlike hardware --Windows will attempt to update drivers etc for the new hardware.

An easier - probably better method if you want to restore to totally UNLIKE hardware where you have HUGE differences is to take an image of a Virtual Machine (Uninstall VMWARE tools if you are using VMWARE player / workstation). Note --you have to BOOT the Image program from WITHIN the VM and write to an external HDD (USB etc). Then RESTORE this image on your new machine.

I've tried both methods and it works -- and I was copying from an INTEL i7 powered machine to an AMD CPU one.

I think also this method is best if you want to update several machines --saves re-downloading on each machine and applying the updates each time - especially for those of you on slow Internet or limited download plans.

AFAIK this is 100% Legal - since there's no restrictions currently on the number of W10 insider preview installations you can have -- I've got quite a few VM's too.

Once W10 is released as Retail / RTM then the normal EULA restrictions will obviously apply together with any new conditions Ms could or might apply.

Cheers
jimbo

BunnyJ · 18 Jul 2015

alphanumeric said:

If you upgrade Windows 8.1 to 10240 it "should" activate, from what I've seen posted. Up to you though, I can't guarantee it.

I tried this out yesterday and it works.. and I got the upgrade from last night. All good with the procedure on my side so far.

BunnyJ · 18 Jul 2015

Kari said:

I think it is important to clarify that this of course only works if the earlier build you are upgrading from was already activated before MS blocked all the Windows 10 keys and closed the activation servers.

Feel free to test it but it's like this: if you now clean install 10162 or 10166 or any other of the earlier builds, it will not be activated to start with, and again when upgraded to build 10240 it will not be activated.

I totally agree with this post. My instillation of WIn8.1 was activated and up to date with patches and updates before I upgraded it to 10240. And 10240 was activated from the previous OS, WIn8.1. In addition I received the update from yesterday and it both installed and worked just fine.

All good so far.

Edwin · 18 Jul 2015

I performed a clean install of Build 10240 skipping both of these steps, then after I signed in with my MS Account as an insider, the copy was activated.