Windows 10 upgrade issue
- Thread starter L1ght
- Start date
Soldato
- Joined
- 28 Mar 2004
- Posts
- 3,933
- Location
- Newcastle upon Tyne
Windows 10 has just notified me that I need to activate it now out of the blue and that my Windows 8 key is invalid? wtf is going on?
When you say you had already updated to win 10 do you mean you did an upgrade install of win10 from your original OS?
If not.
I believe you need to install your win 8 and activate it.
Then you can upgrade to win 10.
Once your computer upgrades you can then if you wish to do a clean install of win 10 and it will accept the upgraded key.
I know thats how it worked for me. Just trying to install win10 with my win 7 key failed as you say.
Fresh install of win 10 without first upgrading from original OS would not accept my key.
If not.
I believe you need to install your win 8 and activate it.
Then you can upgrade to win 10.
Once your computer upgrades you can then if you wish to do a clean install of win 10 and it will accept the upgraded key.
I know thats how it worked for me. Just trying to install win10 with my win 7 key failed as you say.
Fresh install of win 10 without first upgrading from original OS would not accept my key.
Last edited:
When you upgrade from 7/8/8.1 to 10, it creates a new unique identifier based on your hardware (motherboard/BIOS I believe) which is registered with Microsoft.
To then do a clean install you install as normal but when it asks for a key you bypass that step. When it then gets to windows it will automatically activate based on the unique identifier it created for your hardware during the upgrade.
To then do a clean install you install as normal but when it asks for a key you bypass that step. When it then gets to windows it will automatically activate based on the unique identifier it created for your hardware during the upgrade.