Re-installing Windows 10 on a new machine.

Goose

Goose

Goose

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I upgraded to Win10 from 7 in the first week of release and i'm about put together a new system (CPU, RAM, Mobo) but i'm unsure of how or if I can install Windows 10 on it since it no longer uses a key. If anyone has done this already i'd appreciate knowing exactly what you did.

Cheers.
 
If you still have your Windows 7 retail key and are installing Win 10 build 1511 or later, you should be able to enter the retail key to activate. I've not tried this myself.

Edit: Link. However, sadly seems that MS will only allow this approach until the July 29th upgrade cutoff.
 
Last edited:
zola25 said:
If you still have your Windows 7 retail key and are installing Win 10 build 1511 or later, you should be able to enter the retail key to activate. I've not tried this myself.
Click to expand...
This does work for the first activation. But if you have done it once and then change the hardware it will not then automatically activate. Your retail key is flagged as already upgraded and locked to the first device.
 
IT Troll said:
This does work for the first activation. But if you have done it once and then change the hardware it will not then automatically activate. Your retail key is flagged as already upgraded and locked to the first device.
Click to expand...

Oh, I'd not realised that. Not really a retail upgrade at all then - however, given it was a free upgrade I can't really complain.
 
I just finished with support via the built in chat thingy, she sorted it so that i can just enter my Win7 key to activate Win10 on my new hardware.
 
Are you sure you weren't just fobbed off? For me they had to enter a new OEM key to reactivate it on my new hardware. I don't think they can "reset" your key so you can use it again. Especially if you are still using it on a live system now.
 
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