Windows 10 License

Alex,

1 "windows upgrade from 8 to 10 isn't possible anymore"
Anybody saying that is thinking of the official status of the offer [one year from the date of Windows 10 release] rather than the oft-reported reality which is that people have continued to be able to upgrade from Windows 7/8.1 ever since. There is no indication that MS are going to bother putting a stop to this.

4 Any computer licensed for Windows 7/8.1/10 can upgrade to the same Edition of Windows 11.

5 Your activation is shown in Settings, Updates, Activation. I imagine it is a digital licence but that dialog will give you the actual answer.

I cannot answer your questions about Pro. I assume you have a particular requirement for some of its additional capabilities.
- My current computers are all Home. I do not feel constrained when using them.
- I also have one semi-retired computer with Pro. I never felt any benefit when using it.


Best of luck,
Denis

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ab98464 said:

5) Since I used the old windows 8 key and logged into my microsoft account, do I now have a digital license for windows 10, where do I find this as a purchased product in my account?

You don't, it is not a purchased product held in your Microsoft account. For Windows 10 a digital license is assigned to the hardware ID of the PC and stored on Microsoft's activation servers. This is completely independent of any Microsoft account you may have. In fact, you don't even need a Microsoft account to get a digital license for your PC.

Linking your digital license to your Microsoft account is an entirely optional extra, but not a requirement. It can help if you ever need to run the activation troubleshooter after changing a motherboard (and hence the hardware ID of the machine) for example.

6) Should I just skip the hassle and purchase the $200 windows 10 pro license from microsoft online (that would be $100 more)?

Ask yourself, do you really need Pro? If so, what extra features do you think you must have? Some of my machines have Home, others have Pro. For 99% of what I use them for both do everything I need.

There is only one Pro feature that I use regularly, Hyper-V for running virtual machines. But you can run virtual machines in Home if you install VirtualBox or VMWare, so it isn't essential to have Pro if that's something you'd want to do.

As a former Microsoft MVP, that had a complimentary MSDN account, all of my PC's now have multiple legit Windows 10 Digital Licenses. Home, Pro, Workstation, even Enterprise. They never go away, even now that I am out of the program. The only DL's that show up in my Microsoft Account are the ones currently in use. What is currently installed and activated on said device.
None of my current hardware will run Windows 11, it doesn't meet the minimum requirement. I'm not losing any sleep over that fact.

alphanumeric said:

None of my current hardware will run Windows 11, it doesn't meet the minimum requirement.

The one doesn't necessarily follow from the other.

I'm sure all your hardware could run Windows 11, what it can't do without a workaround is install it or upgrade to it. Once you've bypassed the system checks and installed 11 it will run on almost anything, however inappropriate.

I'm not losing any sleep over that fact.

Me, I'm enjoying seeing just how far below spec I can get away with

NavyLCDR said:

I think that is the same way that my daughter chooses boyfriends.

NavyLCDR said:

I think that is the same way that my daughter chooses boyfriends.

Fortunately, after a couple of false starts, my daughter chose wisely....

NavyLCDR said:

I think that is the same way that my daughter chooses boyfriends.