Windows 10: Does Win8 Pro Retail licence carry over to Win10 Pro upgrade?

Gday all

Trying to get my situation sorted.

I have just upgraded my Win 8 Pro Retail version. Everything has gone smooth touch wood.

Being a retail license, I can use this copy on one machine at any time. ie I build a new machine I still can use as long as my previous machine is made redundant.

I am planning a new build within 3 weeks. Does my Win8 Pro license still stand?
Can I install Win 10 Pro on my new machine and activate upon logging in?

In the Win10 FAQ it states Win10 is connected to hardware and that you can do a fresh install on the same machine.

QUOTE:
Can I reinstall Windows 10 on my computer after upgrading?

Yes. Once you’ve upgraded to Windows 10 using the free upgrade offer, you will be able to reinstall, including a clean install, on the same device. You won’t need a product key for re-activations on the same hardware. If you make a meaningful change to your hardware, you may need to contact customer support to help with activation. You’ll also be able to create your own installation media like a USB drive or DVD, and use that to upgrade your device or reinstall after you’ve upgraded.

/QUOTE


Has my previous licence been trumped?

I have checked my account products. Win10 Pro is listed with "To Be Filled By O.E.M."


Thankyou for any advice.

Cheers Bob

:)

 

upgrade from win10 home to pro using a win8 product key

Is this possible ?

Win7 home on an OEM pc.

I have a win 8 pro ( not 8.1 upgrade retail product key.

If I upgrade win7 hp to win10 home,

can I use the win8 pro retail key to upgrade win10 to pro

edition ?

 

Transferring Win 10 license to new machine.

Thanks for the info Andre.

Before I read your post, I had phoned Microsoft support and posed the question to them. Thet said that even though I had a full retail win8 Pro licence, that licence was consumed by the free upgrade to Win 10 pro. I pointed out that was not what was being
posted on the support forum. Full retail licences were supposed to be transferrable. In any case, that was the position taken by the person I talked to. She said she had consulted with someone "higher up". I ended up purchasing a new retail win10 home licence
for the new box. Don't know what the real answer is to the licence transferrability question. Lots of confusing info out there. Maybe that's what Microsoft wants.

Thanks anyway for your help

regards

Don

 

As far as i understand once you have upgraded your Win8 retail version to Win10, a hardware hash is generated that ties your Windows license to the hardware in your pc. In your case your free upgrade to Win10 has been tied to your pc.

Therefore your current Win8 Pro license has been used and connected to your current PC, if you build a new pc you probably have to purchase a Win7 / Win8 license from which you can upgrade.

Like the MS Q & A states:

Building a new pc would fall under 'meaningful hardware change'. And as far as i know it has never been possible to transfer a license to a new or other pc.

 

In theory it all works. In practice, I ended up having to do an upgrade from Windows 8.1 Pro since my clean install of Windows 10 Pro refused to activate with the infamous "blocked key" message - this, despite having completed the upgrade/successfully activated twice before (both Insider build 10240 and the final bits via the Media Creation Tool, both to Windows 10 Pro).

My advice: Keep your Windows 8 installation source handy since you might find yourself stuck having to do a clean install of that first, and activating it with your Windows 8.xx Pro key, before upgrading to Windows 10 Pro.

Of course, my experience could have just been an anomaly associated with the overloaded activation servers on the 29th. Or it could have been because my Windows 8 OEM key (which was linked to my system's BIOS/hardware when I first bought it and thus auto-activated from day one) was for the "Core" (i.e. Home) version of 8.xx and I was trying to clean install of Pro 10.xx.

Bottom Line: Your mileage may vary, and a clean install properly activating - even after a prior upgrade/activation - is far from a given at the moment.

RCK

 

Not true. It has been possible, in the past, to transfer a Retail license to another PC. OEM licenses could not be transferred.

 

Yes, read the EULA, it explicitly states that retail copies, even upgraded copies are eligible to be transferred, if you delete the copy of windows on the old PC.

However, that does not mean you can install Windows 10 Upgrade clean on a new PC. You will have to install your older OS, then re-upgrade on a new PC. The upgrade is tied to your Windows 7/8.1 product key, so the activation servers will know that you have a retail copy and will continue to activate even after the 1 year free upgrade period.

 

Gday Mystere

Yeh I was pretty sure the license was mine to transfer. Was hoping this would have been made "seamless". The ability for OS transfer is part of what you are paying "premium" for retail.

It maybe yet as I haven't found anyone else who has gone through the procedure.

I am hoping now Win10 Pro product is linked to my account with no OEM spec, it is enough for me to load a full Win 10 Pro install and hook up to my account.

Though as you say I might have to go through the Win 8 pro Install again to gain the upgrade again.

Will come and report back but may be some time.

Thankyou to everyone for the input.

Cheers Bob

 

I'll be doing this very thing at the weekend with a new mobo and cpu as the install goosed my old mobo.

So I'll be reinstalling windows 8.1 pro clean and clear then upgrading to windows 10 again....Hope it does ruin anything else.

 

The problem is that the Win10 "upgrade" is tied to the specific machine - irrespective of the original Win7/8/8.1 license. You can't transfer that Win 10 license to another machine.

 

Yes, you can. You can't transfer the *ACTIVATION* to a new machine. The license explicitly states you can transfer your upgrade license.

 

I never read where it actually says that in the EULA. It say's it retains the transferable right when upgraded. How will that work with activation? If you put windows 7 or 8.1 retail on another machine, the activation will see that windows 7 or 8.1 retail version has been upgraded to 10 and it may not activate.

 

That's simply not the case. Your old keys do not get invalidated.

 

So as I stated the other day I would be doing this.

Went from a gigabyte g1 sniper board running a 3770k...borked bios*Sad

Reinstalled windows 8 pro onto a new mobo today Gigabyte z97 and new cpu I5 4690k, So a completely different board.

Activated windows which required the phone in validation and Installed windows 10 straight from there without bothering with updates or any other driver changes, Used a USB which I preloaded it on.

Installed windows 10 in about 20 min and updated drivers and software and no issues with Licencing at all.

So yeah it will work just fine.

 

Thanks for that.

Was hoping you would try the full install of Win10 straight up and bypass Win8 installation to see what would happen.

So a reinstall win8 at worse then.

Cheers