had to replace HD and can't upgrade to win 10

k sort got it working and figured out what went wrong used the original key from my laptop and when i installed win 7 from the disks i used on my desktop it and it got confused so changed the key to the disks i reinstalled win 7 from and it activated it and looks like i can now upgrade it to win 10 you would think though that they could keep track of multiple copys if your licenced OS's so if you do have to reinstall the OS to a new hard drive and you use the other machines disks it would still allow you to activate it

dorkish said:

k sort got it working and figured out what went wrong used the original key from my laptop and when i installed win 7 from the disks i used on my desktop it and it got confused so changed the key to the disks i reinstalled win 7 from and it activated it and looks like i can now upgrade it to win 10 you would think though that they could keep track of multiple copys if your licenced OS's so if you do have to reinstall the OS to a new hard drive and you use the other machines disks it would still allow you to activate it

Microsoft never did enforce keeping the OEM license on the original computer for Windows 7 unless it was greatly abused such as posting it on the internet. You must have had a product mismatch between the desktop discs and laptop product key such as pro vs. home or OEM vs. Retail.

Microsoft is trying to enforce OEM licenses staying on one computer now for Windows 10 by using the Hardware ID activation scheme - as a result, they are converting moveable retail licenses of Windows 7/8/8.1 to non-moveable Windows 10 OEM licenses during the free upgrade process.