Windows 10: Activating windows 10 after major hardware change help

The fact that you went ahead and entered any key brought the activation to a halt until seeing the restart where the activation process was automatically tended to. When using the key the ShowKeyPlus pointed out on the main build's 10 host install I am in at the moment and tried to use that on the second case I knew that would be an automatic fail as far as activating the initial clean install first only to show all that you can't simply activated one machine and take 10 along with you and not see an upgrade on each new machine. It doesn't work that way.

The way 10 is activating however at least for the moment is allowing for some hardware changes that would have otherwise seen the need to call into MS! The first memory installed on the main build here saw that memory replaced when the dimms simply sat too high and bumped up against a large hsf. 7 had just recently gone on the then new build and immediately saw the "This may be a countfeit copy of Windows" watermark appear. One fast to MS to see that taken care of!

With 10 however having installed two of the first memory's four 2gb dimms tossed into the second mini tower I use for test purposes I put together at first from some then unused drives and a few budget priced parts as well as having upgraded the cpu already on the main build. When swapping that pair out for the newer Kingston Hyper X "Fury" memory 10 went deactivated for about a day or so no longer. That was a switch!

With previous versions MS allowed for some degree of minor hardware changes to allow for someone sticking in a better video or sound card as well as adding more memory in but not swapping brands for anything installed on the board like the memory. That was still a major change for 7 but not presently seen with 10.

Now once activated the first time you will automatically find 10 activated for each new clean install that takes place. With the 7 Home Premium 32bit laptop I saw upgrade to 10 the upgrade came out buggy! missing the Start button, a blank screen in Start<Settings, and absolutely could not open up the AllApps if the world was coming to an end! The buggy expected to be buggy upgrade was immediately replaced by the 32bit Home clean install and then onto the 64bit for the second clean install. Then the OEM primary was found not able to be shrunk any to allow for a second backup partition since hardly anything will even be going onto it to start with.

Drive nuked cleaned to start all over fresh having already removed the 300mb 3rd party and 400mb HP partition and then see the OEM System Reserved at the front of the drive become history as the new primary and backup partitions were put on! 10 activated instantly as expected.

 

So, if I understand this correctly before I purchase my new system, I can take the backup image of my "old" Win7 system prior to the Win10 upgrade and put it on a spare hard drive on my new system. Fire it up with my old Win7 and use the gatherosstate.exe to extract this GenuineTicket file. Save this file to a flash drive. Shut down, and swap hard drives so that my Win10 (upgraded from Win7) is on my new system. Fire it up again and now take the Genuine Ticket file from the flash drive and stick it in C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\ClipSVC\GenuineTicket, reboot and everything should be activated with the new system hardware? *Eek

 

WRONG! The method only works on the machine where the previous versions as well as even with 10 was activated on! You can't transfer the activation for 7 on one machine to use on another! You would need to see 7 transferred unless having the retail key for the full retail version activated on the new machine first in order to get that Genuine Ticket item there and then use it for a fresh 10 install. Review the guide for the correct instructions. Clean Install Windows 10 Directly without having to Upgrade First - Windows 10 Forums

 

Ok - well, I am either confused, or I didn't word it properly - or a little of both.

So here is my goal. My current system had Win7 Ultimate 64 on it (activated since the original install several years ago). I did the Win10 upgrade July 29 with no issues. Now I am looking a new hardware (motherboard, CPU and RAM) and I would like to be able to keep all the software / games intact. Ideally I want to simply transfer my old SSD to the new system, make a call to MS and get it reactivated, but I know they won't do it for the new system. Does this make sense?

 

Was the Windows 7 Ultimate a retail product key, or an OEM product key? OEM Product Key cannot be transferred to a new computer (new motherboard, CPU and RAM is definitely a new computer) without violating the EULA and you need to purchase a new license anyway.

If the Windows 7 Ultimate was a retail key then call Microsoft and point out to them that the Windows 10 EULA states in section 4.b that an upgrade from stand-alone software (retail version) is supposed to upgrade to stand-alone software (retail version) and you would like them to activate your Windows 10 on your new computer because you have moved it and not copied it.

 

Then I suggest you try my suggestion #2

 

A new board is the major hardware concern without any doubt as that can be considered a new machine. With the activation process now being changed by MS you may get them to activate it for you but be advised of one thing. The initial upgrade install over a fresh copy of 7 Ultimate x64 with SP1 required turned out "Buggy"! I ended up first going with a second upgrade to repair the first during the first week 10 was out and then saw the full clean install take place.

The first golden rule with any new version being tried out is simple. Make a full system image of the drive while 7 is still on it and then expect the worst! Either programs like your antivirus simply won't work or the upgrade will be too buggy to work with! As for a number of programs depending on what they are you risk incompatibility issues or may find some old XP capable app runs perfect on the 64bit 10! Let's see here's one test of the trial version of a recording program ironically used to grab a segment from a 2001 game title.

[youtube]lGTTk9kaWcw[/youtube]

The free to try only allows up to 10 minutes max recording time while you know any game map can run a bit longer until I come up with the $40! if I decide to go with that particular program since it leaves it's own watermark for the web site's home page in the video. That one goes on everything for some reason while the 2014 build for the av program wouldn't even install on 10! At first I ended up with the 2016 beta form prior to the clean install which sees the 2015 yearly build suited for 10.

As you will find out for yourself fast it's best to prepared for starting everything all over fresh! Once the new mb is in along with the new cpu, memory, etc. you may find it simply easier to toss on a fast quickie for 7 and get that activated with a call to MS having a retail key already and once SP1 is on review the steps in the guide for seeing 10 activated without the need for the upgrade install but once you have the Genuine Ticket seen to simply replace 7 with a 10 clean install. Clean Install Windows 10 Directly without having to Upgrade First - Windows 10 Forums

From there you then find out just what will run on 10 as far as the programs you are presently running on 7. A good number surprisingly will still run on 10 while some will need to be replaced. For the most here 10 seems to be running a lot like 7 despite the new look and features it comes with. But I did break down and end up trying out Start menu 10 from Stardock for $5! since I have been using a shutdown gadget to replace the 7 shutdown button with optional settings for the Restart set as default instead of the constant need to right click on the Start>Power or on the Start button to scroll for the three options there.





I still preferred to have the "New Look" option over the 7 Start menu however while there are no tiles and as you can see the Restart option was set to default since the main build here runs 24/7 as a rule except for the periodic cleaning.

 

My upgrade from 7 to 10 was perfect. No issues and all my programs / data was retained. Same with my wife's system. My son had some issues, and I did a fresh 7 install, then the 10 upgrade and that went well too, other than having to reinstall all of his peripheral stuff, which is what I was trying to avoid for myself when I do my system upgrade in the near future (since some of the stuff I have installed I no longer have access to for a re-installation).

I do hardware reviews for an overclocking website, so there is a nice pool of hardware available to the reviewers and I plan to take advantage of that for my new system. As for me, I review CPU coolers and Cases - both of which I have a supply of to sell / trade. My wife reminds me regularly to get rid of all the computer stuff that is accumulating.

 

Well despite the advantage of having plenty of hardware options you still may end up with fewer software ones! Going from 7 to 10 is actually going three versions newer. You have to take that into consideration since each newer version will see some type of compatibility issue come up.

What I ended up running into here was seeing one out of three upgrades actually work out and not simply be found buggy from the start while clean installs were already planned ahead of time. When going to try out any new OS or even a new program the practical approach is simply having a disaster recovery plan in place just in case things go sideways on you! Here I would automatically lose a few programs not from compatibility issues but going over the limit on how times a certain 3rd party app can be activated before needing to buy it all over again as I previously was stuck doing.

Besides all that however each of those programs saw it's own installer configured to the hardware environment if not a complete stand alone type. Once you make a major hardware swap out you are simply putting a new machine together that will require a fresh start for everything from scratch. Since 7 isn't activated to all that yet the upgrade to save programs won't work but simply see those program folders included with the Program Files, Program Files(x86) for 64bit, and users folders tossed into the Windows.old with some programs typically small size being retained during the upgrade.

Anything that requires a product key on the other hand has to go fresh. If you have the retail key for 7 seeing a Repair Install might get 7 activated with the new hardwares but then you still can lose a few there needing a fresh install all over again. Then you add the change of OS going three versions newer with 10 to add even further to the confusion where newer versions that support 10 will have to be attained if available note! MS will first need to activate a clean install of 7 to the new set of hardwares since the "This is a counterfeit copy of Windows" watermark will be the first thing you are confronted with once you try booting into the original 7 install which might not even able to load up fully. When that happens the old 7 install may simply lock up on you to the greater extent due to the security measures MS already has in place.

 

I started the Insider thing last Nov. and I keep the Insider version of 10 running in a VM just to keep up with the new builds, so I have seen many of the less than stellar releases. But I am the hardware guy and I let my son handle the software issues. I think I have been through 10 of the Win 10 updates on different systems (for friends) and I think only two had some issues, and only one completely stumped me. I finally just told the guy that 7 was as good as it gets on his old laptop. The more I think about it I believe you are right - a new systems needs a fresh OS. I was really trying to save my SolidWorks installation - but I have it on my work computer too, so really it isn't that big of a deal.

 

On the old laptop you mentioned for a friend running into too many problems that could simply be from not seeing anything for 8.1 let alone 10 since the 10 installer will presently grab 8.1 updates when none for 10 are out. If the laptop saw 7 but never 8, 8.1 support that would explain a great deal there.

It was interesting that a friend who had lost everything in a house fire and ended up with a brand new 10 laptop was asking about how to get 7 on it where I had to explain it likely was simply too new a model even for 8 since it apparently just came out and would lack anything for the previous versions unless one was an OEM option. Dell often allows for the choice of OS with certain model series only usually being the case there. The ones you pay more for!

 

The laptop I was referring to was old - as in "made for XP". So 7 was probably a bit of a stretch for it - and I am the one who put 7 on it last year. I actually got 10 on it, and the little "Win10 Ready" upgrade icon would show up after 7 was on it, but it was very unstable and would blue screen shortly after the desktop came up. I got tired of fooling with it. I think I tried the install probably 5 or 6 times (an hour for each install attempt) and for charity work, I simply ran out of patience, particularly since all he does with it is check email and play solitaire on retirement bus trips.

 

That's because it couldn't run with 7 drivers that were likely made available that model but simply too old and too problematic since it wouldn't have seen any 10 support coming out for it! This is the thing that too many people simply do not realize is that companies rush to drop support for any model after so long unless it's a best seller type when the next version of Windows comes along!

They drop the older models like hot potatoes while you the user end up baffled at how come the next version won't run. Solution? Run 10 on a VM! No driver headaches and no BSOD specials waiting for your friend! You will likely to see that be a 32bit 10 VM however unless that has the 64bit 7 with at least 4gb of memory onboard.

 

I know it was 64bit with an anemic AMD dual core and 2GB of RAM, which astounded me that 7 would run on it, and that 10 would give it the green light for the upgrade. Add to it the slush box HDD and it was painfully slow.

Planned obsolescence makes the world go round, right?

 

The 64bit 7 will go on when only 1gb of memory is installed depending on the hardware environment however. Even 10 can run idle at just under 1gb of ram taken while the hardwares on a machine like mine or even a more hefty gaming system or work horse build will then see that climb. Mine sits at 1.5gb when idle.

What came in with 7 has been worked on further since as far as the WinMin kernel using less memory per process then previously seen. If you want to go back and compare hardware requirements for each version 3.1 with 16-32mb max, 95 climbed to 250+ while 98 was downed on anything over 500mb just making the grace period with 512mb in! Couldn't tell you right off about 2000 or ME while XP saw the 3.120gb for the 32bit while Vista and 7 both saw 3.571gb approx. on the builds here.

When first getting into Vista people couldn't figure out why I would say don't bother trying to mix a 512 in with a pair of 1gb if not a single 2gb dimm but go for the matched pair of 2gb back then. The typical argument was that 500mb wasn't going to be available while the matching of equal size by the same manufacturer was still going to see the best results even if some of it was mapped out. The upgrade from 2gb to 4gb also will be noticed immediately on the 64bit while bumping upwards to 8gb even 16gb never made any noise on the 64bit 7 as far as any great performance boosts!

7 was far from any "memory hog" being one of the labels Vista got back then while that was another MS goof ball floated there for intentionally understating the actual best minimum of 2gb so they could please the OEMs to sell their stuff only seeing 512mb or a pair of 512s installed. *Rolleyes You got to look at a fancy new desktop but couldn't run much of anything on it without first buying the extra memory back then!