Quick question: converting old Win 8 keys to Win 10 in VM

[Sumanji]

Hey,

Question as title; I want to convert two old Windows 8 keys to Windows 10 keys by installing Windows 10 in a VM and "consuming" the keys.

I would like to be able to use these keys for Win 10 on physical machines in the future, so will this method still work? Basically trying to convert them while the free upgrade offer is still active

[edit] One of the keys is an OEM licence from Razer, stuck to the bottom of my laptop - will this one still work in the VM?

Please lmk if there is anything specific I would need to do

Cheers,

Su

 

[philip2009]

I swapped Windows 10, effectively between machines, recently(after upgrading from 8) ...

Basically, as I understand it, Microsoft generate a "fingerprint" of the machine the key is used on (you end up with generic licence key plus a machine fingerprint). I upgraded from Windows 8 to 10 on a PC and a few weeks ago completely changed the motherboard and processors (AMD->Intel) - I was not asked to reactivate after this change but it seems other people have been and I think the reason probably depends on the licence associated with your original key, my Windows 8 key was retail i.e. allowed to be swapped between machines, so I'm guessing I may have had to contact Microsoft to get a reactivation if my original licence had been OEM. Perhaps someone has more definitive information?

If you go ahead and install Windows 10 the following may be helpful -

C:\Windows\System32>slmgr /dlv - This will tell you if you have a retail licence. 

C:\Windows\System32>slmgr /xpr - This will tell you if you are permanently licensed.

 

[Sumanji]

Ok cool thanks Philip...

So the two Win 8 licences have never been used. I installed Windows 7 on my Razer laptop straight away, so its Win 8 licence was never activated with MS. And the other Win 8 licence was an upgrade offer from MS (I think it was an offer for existing Win 7 users, which I only paid 40 quid for).

So if I activate them on a VM, will it register the fingerprint of that VM?

Cheers,

Su