Windows 8.1 Pro upgrade key good for Windows 10

NavyLCDR said:

I just bought a brand new Dell Ryzen 2700X desktop computer that came with Windows 10 Home. It came with version 1709 from the factory. I tried several different product keys I have for Windows 10 Pro to do the upgrade to Pro and all of them I had were rejected. I have a Windows 8.1 Home to Pro upgrade product key (retail), the computer for which it was used is long gone. Thought I would try it. And it worked! Found it very interesting. Now that I have a digital license for Pro for my new computer, I'm going to restore an image I made of my old desktop computer so I can easily keep all my programs, apps, and settings. It is Windows 10 Pro as well.

Yeah - this has always worked but is rather odd as you cannot use an upgrade key to clean install Windows 8.

Just another example highlighting MS do not really care that much about rigorous licence checks for consumers.

NavyLCDR said:

You are correct, I have never been able to clean install using that Windows 8.1 product key. I entered it in the change product key section of the Activation settings and it triggered the upgrade from Windows 10 Home to a fully activated Windows 10 Pro. So, it seems like Windows 8.1 product keys work exactly the same way in Windows 10 that they did for Windows 8.1.

Thinking about this, it is quite fair. If you had 8 core, you could buy an 8 Pro upgrade key to get 8 Pro. The windows 10 upgrade process cannot check two keys (would get complicated and MS obviously need to know you are on PRO. The underlying assumption is you had the original and upgrade licence which is true in most cases.

There was a registry hack to clean install Win8 from an Upgrade key.. but NVM... DL's are flaky, activation has been watered down

What error about Windows 10 Pro keys not accepted?

NavyLCDR said:

I'll have to go back and look. One product key, I know, was specifically for a refurbished PC. I believe that makes it OEM. So for doing an upgrade to Pro on a previously licensed computer (Home license only), Microsoft may be blocking OEM product keys. The error was the same as if trying to do the upgrade to Pro with the generic key without a preexisting license.

My goal was to simply trigger the upgrade to Pro, then use the troubleshoot to move the license from old computer to new computer. I've got a hodge podge of many different Windows licenses for 7, 8.1, and 10 Pro.

I'm not sure OEM edition plays a part in DL... I have used the same OEM key to activate multiple VM's - unless VM's are no longer regarded as new PC's