Reupgrading after the free period ends.

I have just been asked an interesting question, and I could not answer for sure.

Suppose you are running 8.1, then upgrade, and rollback in the free period.

We all know that establishes a digital licence.

We also know we can clean install at any time in the future.

Also, we know we can upgrade aa second time in the free period.

BUT can we upgrade again (keeping all files - forget wisdom of doing this) after the free period ends?

My gut feel is we must be able to do so, as you can already upgrade an unactivated version of windows 8.1 but the upgraded version would remain unactivated assuming no prior digital licence.

I assume the upgrade would check for a digital licence anyway. In worst case, you might need to use tbe Redstone Activation Troubleshooter.

Agreed?

I suspect an upgrade after the free period will require an upgrade license, and so, a clean install to grab the digital entitlement will be necessary. But if you upgrade, why not make an image before falling back?

My gut feeling is, it will work. The PC will just activate with the existing digital entitlement. My laptop has Home and Pro digital entitlements. Due to the Windows 8.0 OEM key, Windows 10 Home got installed by default when I did a clean install. I just entered the generic key to upgrade to Pro and activate with the (Pro) digital entitlement it got when I did my free upgrade from 8.1 Pro. That upgrade from Home to Pro had nothing to do with the free upgrade offer. 10 Home is not a qualifying OS. I'm going to have to try and remember to actually give this a try after the 29th. Reinstall 8.0 or 8.1 and do an upgrade and see what happens.

My gut feeling is, it will work. The PC will just activate with the existing digital entitlement. My laptop has Home and Pro digital entitlements. Due to the Windows 8.0 OEM key, Windows 10 Home got installed by default when I did a clean install. I just entered the generic key to upgrade to Pro and activate with the (Pro) digital entitlement it got when I did my free upgrade from 8.1 Pro. That upgrade from Home to Pro had nothing to do with the free upgrade offer. 10 Home is not a qualifying OS. I'm going to have to try and remember to actually give this a try after the 29th. Reinstall 8.0 or 8.1 and do an upgrade and see what happens.

Yes, will be good to see what happens.

Logic says it should work. The genuine ticket (that will be created when using a Win 7/8 key) has the hardware-id that is required to be activated... so sending a hardware-id that is already on MS servers (same edition and wot-not), it should recognise it and send back the digital licence for activation.

I suspect an upgrade after the free period will require an upgrade license, and so, a clean install to grab the digital entitlement will be necessary. But if you upgrade, why not make an image before falling back?

I was asking out of curiousity.

Re image backup - that partly helps, but if person makes subsequent changes after reverting, image becomes outdated.

I'm agreeing with Superfly on this one.

I was asking out of curiousity.

Re image backup - that partly helps, but if person makes subsequent changes after reverting, image becomes outdated.

M, these are are some of the things that I'm quite keen on seeing pan out
Like equating digital entitlement (ie. hardware-id) = Product key - it's not as simple as we thought, given various scenarios. Interesting times ahead... phone activation is out as an escape route for one.

Everybody having the same product code (digital entitlement) would make phone activation tricky, lol. Having it tied to your Microsoft ID could make it easier though.

I can also throw another monkey wrench into the activation issue doing a re-upgrading using a windows 7 system that has a legit oem-slp key. I am referring to oem computers that come pre-activated with windows 7 sp1. This might even effect clean installs after the 29th but I am not sure.