Windows 10: Installing on another computer

I installed windows 10 on one laptop during the free upgrade. Now someone has given me another small laptop running windows 7. Can I add windows 10 since I already have it on my other laptop? I plan on using the small laptop primarily for ebooks and word games.

:)

 

Installing Retail Windows 10 on another computer

Activation isn't associated with the Microsoft account at all. Your devices are listed there for other reasons.

 

Installing Retail Windows 10 on another computer

Hello Greg, thanks for the reply.

So it sounds like I don't do anything on my end when I'm ready to use product key on a different computer? Just try to register Windows 10 like normal and if there is a problem, call Microsoft to get it activated manually?

I was hoping there was a way to deactivate my key before uninstalling the OS... like an option in System Settings or online through my Microsoft account. I recently got my father setup with a five-device license for Office 365: he can mange what devices
are activated/allowed to use his license from his Microsoft account. I didn't see an option like that for Windows 10 on my Microsoft account.

Maybe I'm overthinking this?

Thanks!

 

You can try the upgrade. Seems like Microsoft has not turned off free activations of upgrades yet. Your previous upgrade to Windows 10 on the first laptop has no relevance at all to the second laptop.

 

It was working the week before last. I upgraded my fathers laptop from 8.1 Pro to 10 Pro and got a Digital License for 10 Pro. YMMV though, at some point Microsoft will turn off the free upgrades.

 

Hello, I have something similar and wondering about it....My older laptop was a 7-10 Pro upgrade, think it was actually the same laptop i used during beta...

I bought a new laptop and it has 10 Home edition. How can I use the Pro version from other laptop?

Thanks

 

Simple answer you can't. It's not meant to be transferable like that. The free upgrade is free for the life of the Device you did the free upgrade on. The product code you get with the free upgrade is a generic code that only works on devices that already have a Digital License stored on the activation server. Type it into your 10 Home PC and it will upgrade to Pro but fail to activate. There is no free upgrade from 10 Home to 10 Pro.

 

hmm ok well guess have to deal with it.

 

You can still upgrade it to Pro, you just have to buy a Pro license for that device. Once you have a valid legal Pro key, you can do a change product key and upgrade to Pro without having to reinstall. Click the change product key option and I think it will give you an option to buy a key right from Microsoft?

 

yeah I see that, $99

thanks

 

No problem. You can go from Home to Pro or Education, or Enterprise via the change product key option with no need for any install media. I've done all of them at one time or another. I have an MSDN subscription and lots of keys to play with and test these scenarios out.

 

What about moving Education key from one machine to another ? Education allows install on two machines. I have the key being used on two machines. Both show activated tied to my Microsoft account. I am getting a new machine with W10 Home. Can I deactivate one of the two machines and install Education on the new machine ?

Both PCs show up on my Microsoft account. There is the option to "Remove PC" however I am not sure if this just removes it from account or deactivates it ? The later would be ideal.

 

Retail can be moved from one PC to another. The one Retail product code can only ever be used on one PC at any one time. Even Education? Do you have a link to where it says it can be installed on two PC's with the same key? I'm running Education on my PC's. I'm using my MSDN keys which are listed as Retail. Well I was, up until I upgraded to the Anniversary Edition. Now they show as activated with a Digital Entitlement?

Removing a device from your Devices list does not deactivate it. I do it all the time. I don't like the lame names Windows auto assigns a PC on a clean install so I change it. Sometimes the old name stays on my devices list anyway and I delete it.

 

I am pretty sure its on the Dreamspark website. Anyhow I have two pcs running Ed with the same key.

If you look at the post by Andre in the following thread it confirms that, the one marked as answer is just redirecting to technet.

Windows 10 Education - How many PC - Microsoft Community

I know with Office 365 you can deactivate installs online and then reinstall on another machine. I wish it was the same for Windows.