Windows 10: Activating Windows 10 installation

Hello,
I bought a new laptop with Windows 7 Pro on it and it was upgradable to Windows 10. However, the upgrade failed. Also my new laptop had a HDD so I replaced it with my old SSD. I installed Windows 10 from USB doing a clean install. However, it doesn't activate. I entered a Windows 7 Home Premium Key that I had from my previous laptop but that doesn't get activated and I get a 0xC004F050 error. How can I obtain the Windows 7 Pro key necessary to activate from the old HDD lying outside of any computer? Do I have to put it back into my laptop?

:)

 

Facillity at Zero

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Installation and activating Windows 10

Basically my question is - Can I activate Windows 10 retail version with an OEM's license (or with the license that came preinstalled with my device by the manufacturer)?

Yes, you can, but why do you want to though since an OEM preinstalled copy can be reinstalled using the recovery partition which is the same as a clean install?

Learn more:

• How
  to: Perform a clean install using Reset this PC in Windows 10

If you wish to use retail media, it will work just fine:

When you upgraded from a previous version of Windows or receive a new computer preinstalled with Windows 10, what happened is the hardware (your PC) will get a digital entitlement, where a unique signature of the computer will be stored on
Microsoft Activation Servers. The Windows 7 or Windows 8 genuine license you were previously running will be exchanged for a diagnostics key.

Anytime you need to reinstall Windows 10 on that machine, just proceed to reinstall Windows 10. It will automatically reactivate. You will prompted to enter a product key a couple times through the installation, click I don't
have a key and Do this later.

There is no need to know or get a new key, but if you have issues with Digital Licensing or the Activation Troubleshooter, you can utilize an existing Windows 7 or Windows 8/8.1 product key you already own to
reactivate if necessary. or use the reset function in Windows 10.

Find your key:

Windows 10 came preinstalled on my computer, how do I find the product key?

Press Windows key + X

Click Command Prompt (admin)

Enter the following command:

wmic path SoftwareLicensingService get OA3xOriginalProductKey

Hit Enter

The product key will be revealed, copy the product key then enter it

Click Start > Settings > Update & security > Activation > Change the product key then enter the new product key then click Next to Activate

If you are unable to activate Windows 10 after all the above and you are certain you have the correct edition installed, then please attempt phone activation:

Activate Your Windows 10 License via Microsoft Chat Support

OR

Would Windows 10 get activated if I first install Windows 10 from the official ISO file (a clean install not resetting) and then activate the Windows using the license (or the digital license) that came preinstalled with the device?

Yes, just make sure you reinstall Windows 10 Home:

• How to: Perform a clean install of Windows 10

Windows license activation (while reactivation)

 

Welcome to TenForums, salilsurendran.

Unless the Windows 7 Home Premium from your previous laptop was a Retail licensed purchase (as opposed to OEM/System Builder), it's only licensed to that previous laptop. Even if it was Retail, you can't be using it on two different machines at the same time.

Short of reinstalling the old HDD, assuming you had a legitimate copy of Windows 7 Pro on the new laptop, there may well be a Certificate of Authenticity (COA) somewhere like on the bottom of the laptop that would be useable for the upgrade/clean install, unless IT's been blocked due to abuse or excessive use.

 

If the laptop came with Windows 7 Pro then the COA sticker should have a Windows 7 Pro key on it and it should work when you clean install a recent (build 10586) ISO. Why are you giving it a Windows 7 Home Premium key? If you don't see a COA sticker, look under the battery.

 

No I looked everywhere. There is no COA sticker. I have the latest build but it doesn't accept the key. Windows 7 Home Premium key was what it had on my old laptop. I even called Lenovo support and they extracted the key from my motherboard but that is not accepted either.

 

I'm not sure how Lenovo managed to exctract a Win 7 key from the mobo - that's kinda impossible as there is no key there, but anyway - without the COA sticker, you will have to go back to an activated Win 7 from which you need to get a genuine ticket in order to upgrade, if you do not have a retail key. You can check the edition of your key(s) with ShowKeyPlus.

 

the problem was that I had upgraded my Windows 10 to Build 10586 but hadn't restarted the machine so it was refusing to accept the key. Once I restarted Windows 10 automatically activated. Problem solved.