Windows 10: Is 7 pro OEM version eligible for upgrade to Windows 10?

I purchased a Windows seven OEM cd from Amazon to upgrade from vista. I'm now wanting to upgrade to ten and the installation using a usb stick gets to the screen where it asks for a product key. The OEM disk doesn't have one.
the install apparently will not proceed.

Is is there a workaround?

:)

 

Upgrading from Windows 8.1. Professional retail product key to Windows 10 -- what happens to your product key and right to reinstall?

Hi, just a question, all OEM 8.1 Windows Pro versions will be eligible for upgrading to Windows 10 for free? Or there are OEM versions that will not be eligibly to upgrade for free?

Thanks for the info!

 

How to downgrade Windows 10 Pro (OEM) ?

I recently purchased a HP Envy laptop with Windows 10 Pro ( 64bit ) installed. For reasons beyond the scope of this post, I'd like to downgrade it to Windows 8.1 or Windows 7. According the the Microsoft's OEM page on understanding the downgrade rights,
I am eligible to downgrade this OEM build of Windows 10 Pro. But I'm not sure how to go about doing it. There is no "go back to previous version of windows" option in the Control Panel/Recovery Option. The only think I have with me is the OEM license key for
the Windows 10 Pro.

I contacted HP Support, and they actually refused the very claim that I'm even eligible for a downgrade. Upon escalating my issue to a higher level at HP support, they simply threw in the towel and said I should contact Microsoft(!).

So while I'm pretty certain( based on what I have read ) that the OEM build of Windows 10 Pro is eligible for downgrade, I'm really not sure how to go about installing a older version(8.1 pro or 7 pro).

Thank you in advance!

-JasmineJ

 

Just a clarification needed to address your question, lbeck. Are you booting from install USB intending a clean install or just running the setup.exe in the root of the USB to perform the upgrade per se? If only upgrading, you need to make sure your USB has precise edition of Win10 needed to upgrade from your Win7 edition.

 

Well thanks for the quick response. I returned to this thread to delete my post or to say nevermind.

even though the product key is not printed anywhere on the disk or packaging, it does appear on the computer/properties screen. I have copied it and presume that will allow me to continue with Windows ten setup.

the USB stick I'm using contains setup program downloaded from the official Microsoft site.

I'll close this thread now on my end.

thanks for your repose.

lee

 

The computer/properties screen will not show the Windows Product Key. It will show the Product ID - which is completely different. To get the Windows 7 Product Key from the installed Windows 7 OS, you need to run showkeyplus from this fourm:
Showkey - Windows 10 Forums

 

You are (unfortunately) entirely correct. I used ShowKey - thanks - and the utility returned my original Vista Key. I upgraded from Vista a couple of years ago with the 7 Pro OEM disk and Seven worked fine until my attempt to upgrade to Ten (at the invitation of MSFT).

Do I need to reinstall Vista, upgrade again to Seven, and then upgrade to Ten or what? See the screen capture regarding the ShowKey message at "OEM Key" and the Ten setup error.

Thanks.

 

I believe Showkey plus is showing your Windows 7 Product Key. To verify, click the "Check Product Key" option of showkeyplus and enter the product key that showkeyplus is giving you as the installed key and it will clarify what version of Windows it is for. You did not answer Word Man's question in Post #2. Are you booting the computer from the Windows 10 USB or are you running setup.exe from the USB inserted from inside Windows 7? You should be running setup.exe from the USB inserted with Windows 7 running, NOT booting the computer from the USB. Then if you have the correct version of Windows on the USB flash drive it should upgrade the installed Windows 7 to Windows 10 without asking for a product key.

Alternatively, you can also use the "upgrade this PC now" option of the Media Creation Tool:
Windows 10

 

Sorry for not responding to word man. I have been booting Windows seven and then using the USB stick to try for the update. After the unsuccessful attempts from the USB drive, I tried from the Microsoft URL. The only difference is that the URL goes through a lengthy "looking for and installing updates" prior to the request for product key and denial.

shutting down seven states "installing 211 updates" which is occurring as I write this. Maybe there is a critical update that will be installed, but I'm not optimistic that it'll help,to install ten.

showkeyplus confirms that the product key is for Windows 7 pro.

I'll check seven again after the updates.

 

After more than three hours message is "failure configuring updates reverting changes..."

 

Seems like it is time for a clean install. There are a few options:

I don't think you will have to install Vista first. My Windows 7 upgrade disk will clean install. The below options are in no particular order:

1. Clean install Windows 7. You do not have to wait for the Windows 7 updates if you have a downloaded Windows 10 USB or DVD. Clean install Windows 7. Make sure it is activated. Run Windows 10 setup.exe from inside Windows 7 - just like any other file from a USB/DVD.

2. Try this with your existing Windows 7:
Clean Install Windows 10 Directly without having to Upgrade First - Windows 10 Forums

3. Clean install Windows 10 Pro. Skip entering a product key when asked. After it is installed, go to the activation screen, change product key, enter the Windows 7 product key to activate it.

4. Combine 2 and 3, if option 2 fails because your current Windows 7 is messed up so you ended up with a messed up genuineticket.xml file, then you can revert to option 3.

 

I just used a 32 bit Windows 7 Ultimate Upgrade License to clean install Windows 10 also. This system originally came with Vista but that key was not necessary.

I thought purchased OEM install media did come with a License Key which would probably work.

I really wanted to upgrade to the x64 version but the key would not work with that.

 

The same product key works for both 32-bit and 64-bit as long as the version of the Windows 7/8/8.1/10 are the same. You had the wrong version of 64-bit downloaded.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/w...8-fd7feb7d1915

Google "will product key work for both 32-bit and 64-bit windows 7" and you will receive many confirmations that the same product key will install the same version Windows 7/8/8.1/10 32-bit or 64-bit.

 

What I tried to do originally was to use the Windows 7 32 bit Upgrade key to clean install the 64 Bit Windows 10. Doing that I got a message about the key being an update version and not usable.

I then used the same Windows 7 Upgrade key to clean install a 32 bit version of Windows 10 which worked and activated fine. Once the Windows 10 install was activated, I then clean installed, without using a key, the 64 bit version which activated fine.

All the versions were Ultimate or Pro, only the bit version caused a problem. I should also note this install is Legacy and the system originally had Vista.

 

Well, glad you ended up with what you want! Now you shouldn't have any future problems until you decide to change the motherboard. *Confused