Windows Activated without a key being entered

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  1. kevvyb
    Posts : 247
    Windows 10 Pro version 21H2 (standalone licence)
    Thread Starter
       New #21

    Bree said:
    You installed Windows 10 Pro on this laptop using your own retail Windows 7 Pro key. This was a legitimate upgrade.
    But what was on the PC when you got it? Did it come with Win7 Home pre-installed, or maybe even Windows 8/8.1 Home? Especially if it was supplied with Windows 8/8.1 there would be a key built into the hardware. Although officially ended, the free upgrade still seems to be operational. The activation of Windows 10 Home could well be based on a Windows 8 key from the hardware, which is (until MS stop allowing upgrades) entitled in its own right to a free upgrade and a non-transferable Digital Licence tied to the PC's hardware.

    A Digital Licence for Pro will not activate Home, or vice-versa. However the DL for Home was created, it should be completely independent of your DL for Pro.
    1. This machine came installed with XP OEM UPDATE - I lied: Just realised this machine came with Windows 7 but must have been OEM. I then bought my own RETAIL copy. It was getting on for ten years ago!
    2. I bought Win7Pro and did clean install
    3. I upgraded that to Win10Pro
    4. I deactivated that installation then reformatted the drive
    5. I installed Win10 Home which was activated when I checked the status.
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  3. Bree
    Posts : 31,665
    10 Home x64 (22H2) (10 Pro on 2nd pc)
       New #22

    kevvyb said:
    1. ...came with Windows 7 but must have been OEM. I then bought my own RETAIL copy....
    2. I bought Win7Pro and did clean install....
    Between 1 and 2 did you ever try upgrading to 10 just to try it out? If so (even if you rolled back straight away) that could explain how this PC got a digital licence for Home. If that's the case then the licence for Home is legitimate and (being an upgrade to an OEM version) only valid for that specific PC's hardware.

    You Pro licence would be independent of that and being Retail should (as I understand it) be transferable.
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  4. kevvyb
    Posts : 247
    Windows 10 Pro version 21H2 (standalone licence)
    Thread Starter
       New #23

    Bree said:
    Between 1 and 2 did you ever try upgrading to 10 just to try it out? ......
    Not that I am aware...I followed the steps above as far as I can remember. By the time Windows 10 was being offered for free I had had Win7Pro installed for some years. Machine was bought some 10 years ago long before Win10 was available.

    UPDATE: In fact I also blocked the forced upgrade to windows 10 until June of 2016.
    Last edited by kevvyb; 05 Feb 2017 at 05:00.
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  6. Barman58
    Posts : 4,201
    Windows 10 Pro x64 Latest RP
       New #24

    One thing with regard to Digital Licences for retail versions it's strongly advised that you set up a login with a Microsoft account, and log into this for a while so that the Licence will be associated to the Microsoft account which will make any future installations onto new or heavily modified hardware a lot smoother.

    You can once the association is completed, decide to use a local account if that is your preference
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  7. alphanumeric
    Posts : 15,037
    Windows 10 IoT
       New #25

    How Home activated is a mystery? Windows 7 PC's do not store a key in the BIOS so no auto key detection happened. It should not have gotten a Digital License if no key was entered. Plus, the old PC still has the Pro Digital License tied to it. That License was not transferred, not that I can tell. The 7 Pro key was used a second time on a second device and that new device got its own DL. IMHO, that's just Microsoft being lenient with issuing Digital Licenses instead of being overly strict. The 7 Pro key wasn't flagged as already used.
    For what it's worth its my opinion that the Pro DL on the old PC is a different DL from the one issued to the new PC, and one is not linked to the other. And the accidental Home activation is good to. They are both legal as far as the Microsoft Activation server is concerned.
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