Activating Windows 10 using a Windows 8 Key

Hi everyone,

I'm thinking about installing Windows 10 pro using the virtualization station on my QNAP NAS. Because we're still in the free upgrade period and I have access to one Windows 8.1 Pro license key through my school for personal use, I was wondering how best to use my 8.1 pro key to install Windows 10 pro..

1. Can I use a Windows 10 Pro ISO to create the virtual machine, and then use my 8.1 Pro license key to activate it?

2. Or do I first need to install Windows 8.1 Pro and then upgrade to Windows 10 Pro? I know that typically, in-place upgrades of Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 result in digital entitlement. My concern is that if I need to rebuild my virtual machine from scratch I'll lose my Windows 10 license completely.

Any thoughts on whether option 1 will work or not or how to protect my Windows 10 Pro installation would be appreciated. Thanks!

The problem with virtual machines is that each virtual machine will create a new Hardware ID. The digital license for Windows 10 is stored on Microsoft activation servers based upon the Hardware ID. After July 29th upgrades won't be free so you might not be able to upgrade the Windows 8.1 license (product key) to Windows 10 on a new virtual machine for free after July 29th.

Superfly said:

Option1 will work.
With VMWare you backup the vmx file - that contains the UUID that has digital entitlement.
Not sure about other types of VM's tho'...

NavyLCDR said:

The problem with virtual machines is that each virtual machine will create a new Hardware ID.

Is there a way to do the same with Hyper V - I suspect even it stores VM related ID information in certain files/ settings? XML? Do we have to dig or someone's already found this?