Windows 10: Cost of Upgrade from XP to Win10Pro

My problems IS resolved. I have a copy of 1511Pro ISO and I now know that any system with 10Pro on it will do.
Period.

As to the suggestion of Insider Program (1) Why would I who said I want nothing to do with MS and am forced to install 1511 only because of their mess, want to to join? Would that be consistent? If you meant that I could get 1511 build that way, that was never the issue--I always had it. I knew that I would want to stick with it early on and I got the ISO.

 

You can install anything you want.

 

That is a trivial statement that is useless. I can, but in order to be able to use it indefinitely, without nagging and spending $ I can only do it with the proper key and not all machines come with it.

 

Not if you are in the Insider Program. At any given time I can run 4 different versions. You said that your issue is solved so mark this thread solved.

 

No matter how much you try to make your answers relevant to my problem, they were and are not. It seems to me that you are the one not listening.

 

Right, my Insider Preview machine with the latest Build [V.1703 Build 16199.1000] shows an expiration date of 12/04/17, the longest term I've had yet.

 

No you can do an in place up grade re install. It is in the tutorials look it up.

 

I don't need to upgrade, I need to downgrade.

 

Read

Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade Windows 10 Installation Upgrade Tutorials

 

Are you saying that I can use a 1511Pro ISO to repair in place a 1703Pro installation? What does such a repair mean, mixing stuff from both versions? If that were possible -- which I doubt -- I would suspect problems. To avoid them there would have to be a fresh install of 1511, not a repair.

 

No you can repair a 1511 10240 the owner of this forum wrote the Tutorial if you do not think it works take it up with him. As for me. C-Ya

 

All: I think part of the issue and the reason for the question is because it definitely has been the case with past Windows versions (before digital entitlements) that certain product keys only worked with later versions of installers. I know that with both Windows XP and Windows 7, there was a point at which MS exhausted all possible product key combinations for a certain version (e.g. Win7 Ultimate Retail, or WinXP Pro OEM) and so they had to start issuing product keys from another block that earlier versions of Windows installers would not recognize as a valid key. Those keys would only be recognized and activated by, say, Windows XP Pro OEM with SP2 slipstreamed in, and not by a Windows XP Pro ISO without SP2 that had been pressed before that product key was generated. It wasn't like MS was purposefully trying to prevent you from installing XP without SP2, or 7 without SP1...they had simply run out of keys at some point and needed to generate new ones that there was no way to retroactively make older versions of the setup routine recognize as valid.

I suspect that with the new digital entitlement system, everybody here is largely correct in stating that a computer with a Win10 digital entitlement will properly activate with any version of Win10, even older versions. Where the answer becomes murkier is when we start talking about Windows 10 installations that are activated via an actual Windows 10 product key, and not via a digital entitlement generated by MS from a Win 7/8.1 activation. It is definitely *conceivable* that at some point, product keys generated by MS for Windows 10 will only work and be recognized by installers for versions of Win10 released after a certain date...again, not because MS is trying to be malevolent, but just because of the laws of mathematics. It's also *conceivable* that such a thing has already happened; however, I personally suspect that not enough Win10 product keys have been generated and sold/distributed at this point for this to be an issue, and any Win10 product key to-date will likely be recognized by the Win10 install routine going all the way back to 1507. This is only a guess, of course.

If OP is planning to purchase a used machine that already comes with Win10, it is probably OEM/BIOS activated anyway and I don't forsee him having problems installing and activating any version of Win10 on it that he wants to (putting aside debates about whether it is a good idea or not).

-- Nathan

 

No, most of the used machines either have no activated Win10 or have been activated by their owners. In fact, the current machine which I am trying to duplicate was upgraded in place to 1511 pro from either 7 or 8 which resulted in problems with user profiles. I cannot repair it because any such will kill all the customization and bring back the bloat, including Cortana, Edge and all the ridiculous apps.

I usually work with 2 computers and when an old w7 died, I wanted to replace it with an identical machine with the exact same config as the 1511 one. I would do a clean install of 1511 and duplicate all the customization on the new computer (I can't restore from its backup because of the corruption). Then I would back it up and restore it to the corrupted computer and voila: 2 identical systems running customized 1511.

Because of MS's atrocious campaign of forced upgrades to the latest version, It was reasonable to be concerned that they may not allow an install of an earlier version on a machine with a later version. So I asked what people knew about this. This was my main issue.

 

1st, I am not keen on a repair in place -- see prev msg. 2nd, 10240 is a very early version. My ISO copies are all 10586.

 

If Windows 10 Pro was activated on a computer by the previous owner, then a digital license for it should have been stored on Microsoft Activation servers and any Windows 10 Pro is supposed to activate on the same computer by retrieving that digital license when it is connected to the internet.