^^^
This is from the Tutorial section - please feel free to browse and search it.. very useful.
Clean Install Windows 10 Directly without having to Upgrade First - Windows 10 blog
Others are experts on the differences between OEM and retail licenses.
What sort of license do you have?
Sorry - that's not what I wanted. I have a Windows 7 key that is not currently in-use. That guide appears to be for someone who is currently running on the Windows 7 key they want to use.
From build 10540 (Nov last year) entry of the retail key was permitted.
That tutorial shows the upgrade relationships between the versions of Windows as well.
Can I buy a Key for windows 7, install the ISO, then upgrade to 10? - Windows 10 blog
- e.g. see #5
I clean installed Win 10 Pro on this PC using my Win 8 Pro license.
From what I have read, yes, you can do that.
You can try it. Sometimes, but not always, Microsoft will reject the Windows 7 Product Key when attempting to activate Windows 10 with it with the reason "Key is in use on another computer." The only solution then is to temporarily install Windows 7 on the computer you want it on, activate it over the phone. Then I recommend getting the genuineticket.xml file. Then Windows 10 will activate on that computer with the Windows 7 key. But if that Windows 7 product key was never used on another computer, it should be fine.
Thanks for letting me knowYou can try it. Sometimes, but not always, Microsoft will reject the Windows 7 Product Key when attempting to activate Windows 10 with it with the reason "Key is in use on another computer." The only solution then is to temporarily install Windows 7 on the computer you want it on, activate it over the phone. Then I recommend getting the genuineticket.xml file. Then Windows 10 will activate on that computer with the Windows 7 key. But if that Windows 7 product key was never used on another computer, it should be fine.
@NavyLCDR "The only solution then is to temporarily install Windows 7 on the computer you want it on, activate it over the phone."
should that be 10?
Yes, I've done so on a computer I built for my in-laws. It was a clean install on a blank drive, no previous OS or digital entitlement. I entered one of my many unused Windows 7 keys, and it activated without issue.
Nope. If Windows 10 fails to activate because Microsoft says the product key is being used on another computer, re-installing Windows 10 won't fix it and you can't activate Windows 10 via phone activation with a Windows 7 product key.@NavyLCDR "The only solution then is to temporarily install Windows 7 on the computer you want it on, activate it over the phone."
should that be 10?
