Win10 digital entitlement. How verify on win7?

JamesEJ said:

Alpha, Thank bunches for the detailed explanation. Read thru it and now will study to understand. I think I do have a "PC... with a factory OEM Windows 7" cos I bought 2 pcs (same gateway model) with same win7 x64 OS. Is that a "OEM-SLP key" situation? Thanks

I would think so yes, this utility will give you some good info on that. ShowKeyPlus If it says OEM marker in the firmware, that means there is an OEM SLIC table in the BIOS. Then just google the last 5 or 10 digits of the product key to see if its an OEM-SLP key. The keys on both PC's will be identical if they the same version of Windows 7 and are OEM-SLP keys. And they won't match the key on the COA sticker. Assuming they are still the original factory install. If one of the keys matches the COA sticker, somebody reinstalled with stock install media. Nothing wrong with that, its how you have to do it if you don't have the custom factory install disks on hand. If you want to post a screen shot of showkey, first click on the displayed keys. That will X out all but the last 5 digits and keep the info private to you only.

I have to take a break for a while. I suffer from chronic back pain. I may not get back online until tomorrow. I'm sure the others can help you out if you have more questions.

JamesEJ said:

On two (same) PC's, I timely upgraded to a free win10 from my win7 x64 home premium, then rolled back to same win7.

While running on that rolled back win7, I cannot seem to find a way to verify and/or view the digital entitlement ("DE") for windows 10. I was told by a $M chat person this DE occurs but I cannot verify/view that DE on my win7.

A good Shawn article (like always) states: "...the activation for the free offer of Windows 10 is registered on the Microsoft activation servers for the PC when you upgraded from an activated Windows 7...". That article was for a win10 OS. See: https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/...-10-check.html


Sooo as it stands, there is no way to be sure the DE actually occurred other than cross ones fingers and hope $M did its job which of course is not always the case.

Thought maybe a virtual win10 might work but just dunno.

Any body know how to verify/view the win10 DE while running this win7?

Thanks in advance, James

Simple - create a virtual hard drive, and install Windows 10 there - this does not affect Windows 7 in any way creating just a single file, and only adds a boot entry to the boot files. Both are easily removed.

This time of year aggravates it. Wrestling the snow blower around, shoveling what I can't get at with it. Damp cold weather etc. One thing a lot of people don't understand, is sitting is the worst thing you can do for a bad back. They think its the other way around and its what you should do. Anyway, showkey will usually give you some very good info on your current setup. OEM-SLP keys are pretty well useless for anything other than the factory recovery disks and or custom OEM install media. And even then you don't need to know what the key is, its entered automatically anyway via a script.

JamesEJ said:

Ok, from the overall consensus of the helpful posts, it appears the DL (my DE) is in fact always stored in the $M system and works fine when properly initiated.

If anyone has experienced or heard to the contrary, please advise. This does not answer my initial question but it is the ultimate end.

The virtual HDD still sounds intriguing tho. An "how to" explanation or web site or e.g. HTG TUT reference will be appreciated

Appreciated again, JIm

Boot from a windows 10 installation usb or dvd

When at the install now, press shitf+f10 to get to command prompt

Type following (can change drive, paths, filename , size etc as you wish)

c:
cd\
md win10vhd
diskpart
create vdisk file=c:\win10vhd\win10.vhd maximum=50000 type=fixed (can change size in MB and make expandable)
select vdisk file=c:\win10vhd\win10.vhd
attach vdisk
exit
exit

and now install windows 10 in the new virtual disk (probably last on list)

At one point I went back to Windows 8.1 after doing the free upgrade to 10. Then clean installed Windows 10 again and activated with the DL no problem. It was a test install to prove that updating via the free upgrade didn't surrender your old OS. Something like that, it was a while back, soon after the free upgrade offer came out.

EDIT: I should mention that I didn't do a rollback. I did the free upgrade, then months latter I clean installed Windows 8.1 on the same PC. Then clean installed Windows 10 on that same PC after that.