Hi Everyone, i'm hoping you might answer a question. I am buying a new laptop and would like to use my old windows 7 pro upgrade key (legit purchase from amazon) to upgrade windows 10 home to pro. i loaded my old laptop back to the original windows 7 home so i'm not using the key 2 times. is this possible?
thank you
Hello BladeTurbo Welcome to the windowssh blog!
If the 7 key is post SP1 I can't see where you have a problem. Since the 10586 Insider as well as Threshold 1 update in November 10 has been able to see the keys from 7/SP1, 8, and 8.1 used on clean installs of the new version. In fact you won't need to see an upgrade install take place but simply slap a Clean Install of 10 by following the step in the guides here at 10F. Clean Install Windows 10 Directly without having to Upgrade First - Windows 10 blog
Thanks Nighthawk. I really want to avoid a clean install since the laptop will have 10 alrerady installed. i'm dropping $2000 on this laptop and don't want to mess it up lol. i did a clean install on my windows 7 laptop using the win10 install on a bootable usb and had no problems using the win7 pro upg key. i was thinking about using the upgrade anytime, but never tried it.
I haven't either so you are not alone there. I mainly deal with custom builds here while I recently upgraded a 7 laptop to 10 last summer and saw a disaster in the making followed by the immediate clean install! Subsequently I replaced the factory 32bit 7 Home Premium with the 10 Home 32bit upgrade replaced by the 32bit clean install followed by a second 64bit clean install. And then found I was unable to shrink the factory primary download any for a small backup partition. The second 64bit clean install followed!
That wasn't the first mess however! The main build being the first when walking into a 10 upgrade intentionally blindly to see what the results... (barf! argh ggrrrrr.. ) would end up being like. And the word "Like" should be omitted! Now with the 7 Pro key if SP1 being the 2011 late release type following SP1 back then you shouldn't run into any problems. SP1 is the actual requiremetn there however.
The GenuineTicket.xml file is something you will still want to grab however in case the activation part doesn't go through for some reason. That will take the present activated status for the 7 HP install however and be applied to a fresh 10 Home install while the 7 Pro key might have to see activation unless being retail not an upgrade or OEM for System Builder type key. Amazon sees a lot of sellers with various OS options as far as keys go. The valid Pro key however can be tried on a Pro download you will now need to replace the previous 10 Home key made up. The Media Creation tool as well as other apps can used to see one edition replace the other since the Threshold 2 update being the 10586.73 build you used was updated since to the 19586.168 after several updates came out. So the new MC tool is what you would now need to grab again. Windows 10 ISO Download - Windows 10 blog
The Tech Bench Program's download page may not actually see the Threshold 2 but one of the newer Insider Preview builds at this time instead. The key will still work on any of those as well.
1. It doesn't matter if the Windows 7 product key is post-SP1 or not.
2. Upgrade the Windows 10 Home to Pro by going to settings, update & security, activation screen. Change the product key to Windows 10 Pro generic product key - VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T
3. Once the upgrade is finished, go back to settings, update & security, activation screen. Change the product key to your Windows 7 Pro product key to activate the Windows 10 Pro.
4. You may get an error stating that the Windows 7 product key is being used on another computer. If that happens then you will have to temporarily install Windows 7 on another hard drive or another partition on that computer. Use phone activation to activate Windows 7 on it. Then you can go back to Windows 10 on that same computer and activate it with the Windows 7 product key.
Two things you can't do, because they don't work:
Trigger the Windows 10 upgrade from Home to Pro by entering your Windows 7 Pro product key. You have to use the generic Windows 10 Pro product key to trigger the upgrade.
You can't phone activate Windows 10 with a Windows 7/8/8.1 product key. So if the Windows 7/8/8.1 product key is blocked from automatic internet activation, you have to go back to Windows 7/8/8.1 and activate that over the phone first, then you can activate Windows 10.
One thing I should mention is that the Upgrade Anytime offer wouldn't apply for 10 on a factory 7 install but likely have been for W8 years back. You can't use that to simply skip over two newer versions as for seeing a free upgrade into Windows 3 versions newer. You will want to review the guide on how to go about upgrading from the Home edition to 10 Pro. Upgrade Windows 10 Home to Windows 10 Pro - Windows 10 blogThanks Nighthawk. I really want to avoid a clean install since the laptop will have 10 alrerady installed. i'm dropping $2000 on this laptop and don't want to mess it up lol. i did a clean install on my windows 7 laptop using the win10 install on a bootable usb and had no problems using the win7 pro upg key. i was thinking about using the upgrade anytime, but never tried it.
That's the fast option seen there where you buy a new key but some getting theirs for only $40 with a clean install of Pro instead of the retail tag of buying the upgrade offer from the MS store. Speaking of 10 laptops I picked up this one for a song back in January for only $420! Amazon.com: Toshiba Satellite C75D-B7297 17.3-Inch Laptop (Brushed Black): Computers Accessories
That was used to replace a 15" HP 7 laptop upgraded to 10 Home x64 from the 32bit 7 HP seen originally until both drive and display since nothing comes up at post both went. I later confirmed that the drive was doa while a replacement still saw nothing come up on the display at all. The larger screen certainly helped for someone who had just gone through cataract surgery!
