Is it possible to dual boot W7 and W10 with the same key?
- Thread starter Goose
- Start date
Pretty sure that's a generic key which is the same for everyone who upgraded 7/8/8.1.
I've been doing some googling and it's not entirely clear what happens to your key. One site said that after 90 days if you're still using Windows 10 then your key no longer works with Windows 7.
I'll probably just try and buy a new key I think.
Produkey gives both the product key and your license key,try it out and see if it gives you something useful
whilst there is a generic product key, I have never understood all of these discussions on a generic authorization key, I assume they originated because of a lack of understanding that the license key could be recovered with produkey (or other tools) - please correct me.
whilst there is a generic product key, I have never understood all of these discussions on a generic authorization key, I assume they originated because of a lack of understanding that the license key could be recovered with produkey (or other tools) - please correct me.
If you have another Windows 10 device that was upgraded from a previous version of Windows jpaul then run produkey on that and see if the key is the same. Chances are it should be a generic key, since upgraded versions of Windows don't use product keys but digital entitlement.
Cool - did you get a name of the person you spoke to?
Which number did you call them on?
This is going against all the advice we've already received from MS - your license is upgraded from 7 to 10 and once the "roll back" period has passed then you've got a single Windows 10 license, not one of each.
If you've been told different then I'd love to try and speak with the same person for sanity sake and also cost savings.
Ta
I used the Contact Support app in Windows 10 to speak to them that way. After installing Windows 7 it wouldn't activate no matter how many times I tried so i contacted them again and was again told that my Windows 7 key is still valid for use. In the end the problem was that I had to activate via phone but I do now have a Win10 and Win7 dual boot from a single Win7 key.
OK I will. If you have Digital Entitlement (free upgrade) you only have a generic product key (the one you enter during setup).
Utilities like ProduKey will give you TX9XD-98N7V-6WMQ6-BX7FG-H8Q99 for Windows 10 Home and VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T for Windows 10 Pro. These are useless without a Digital Entitlement linked to a hardware fingerprint.
However if you have a retail or OEM key then this will be recoverable using a utility.
ITtroll, thanks,
below are some screen captures of the product Id's and keys captured with produkey on the same hardware/system with a 3way multi-boot
- a win 10 home retail install, for which I supplied a (different) win7 home retail key
- a win 10 pro oem install , supplying the win 7 pro oem key
- original win7 pro oem boot license
so these each have a different product ID, different to the ID's you gave,
but maybe that is because I supplied the respective 7 keys to the win10 boots to authorize them (as opposed to automatic authorization)
I theorize these 10 product keys are the digital entitlement keys (which I can note down, for any catastrophe that might occur; but have not yet proven that by using them in a fresh install)
( Maybe produkey does not work under win 10, it was working under win7 though and product key concurred with the COEM on the laptop and I have used it already for a re-install.)
so what do you think the significance of these 10 keys are ?
I have only shown the first few characters of Product key column since I think these keys are unique to me, and although I think the ID's maybe shared, have blanked a few digits.
(maybe authorizing using 7 pro/home keys is a more robust strategy as I now have a key noted down, unlike the ethereal digital entitlement)
( Incidentally on this multi-boot have seen the system run some cdsk's on the single ssd being used for the multi-boot, my theory is that the win10 fast boot mechanism may leave some partitions unclosed for a shared data partition I use on the three boots, so have now disabled fast boot )
below are some screen captures of the product Id's and keys captured with produkey on the same hardware/system with a 3way multi-boot
- a win 10 home retail install, for which I supplied a (different) win7 home retail key
- a win 10 pro oem install , supplying the win 7 pro oem key
- original win7 pro oem boot license
so these each have a different product ID, different to the ID's you gave,
but maybe that is because I supplied the respective 7 keys to the win10 boots to authorize them (as opposed to automatic authorization)
I theorize these 10 product keys are the digital entitlement keys (which I can note down, for any catastrophe that might occur; but have not yet proven that by using them in a fresh install)
( Maybe produkey does not work under win 10, it was working under win7 though and product key concurred with the COEM on the laptop and I have used it already for a re-install.)
so what do you think the significance of these 10 keys are ?
I have only shown the first few characters of Product key column since I think these keys are unique to me, and although I think the ID's maybe shared, have blanked a few digits.
(maybe authorizing using 7 pro/home keys is a more robust strategy as I now have a key noted down, unlike the ethereal digital entitlement)
( Incidentally on this multi-boot have seen the system run some cdsk's on the single ssd being used for the multi-boot, my theory is that the win10 fast boot mechanism may leave some partitions unclosed for a shared data partition I use on the three boots, so have now disabled fast boot )
They look like the generic keys to me. The second one appears to be using the VK7JG key. The first one appears to be using another well known generic key; YTMG3-N6DKC-DKB77-7M9GH-8HVX7
The third one is a unique OEM key.
The Product ID is standard to all and just identifies the edition retail/OEM/home/pro etc.
The third one is a unique OEM key.
The Product ID is standard to all and just identifies the edition retail/OEM/home/pro etc.
ITTroll thanks,
yes, my error, when I googled the product keys I had, more extensively, I found they were indeed generic keys.
I am still unclear whether a 7 retail key freely upgraded to 10 retains some retail portability versus an oem upgrade, in terms of being able to susbequently re-activate if you change hardware;
since, if you can change hardware, that would have seemed a reason for a non-generic key being delivered. (articles like this lead to my error)
yes, my error, when I googled the product keys I had, more extensively, I found they were indeed generic keys.
I am still unclear whether a 7 retail key freely upgraded to 10 retains some retail portability versus an oem upgrade, in terms of being able to susbequently re-activate if you change hardware;
since, if you can change hardware, that would have seemed a reason for a non-generic key being delivered. (articles like this lead to my error)