Windows 10: Product id code check for MSDN vs normal retail

How do I find out if a Win10 license key is normal oem or retail vs an MSDN/Dreamspark key?
Is there any way to check from the product id or license key or the slmgr command?

:)

 

Retail copy or msdn

Sir tell me some thing about retail vs msdn

 

Information about MSDN Product Key

I need to know about MSDN code. I bought an MSDN Key for Windows 10 Pro, what will be differences if I had bought Retail License?

Will I have the license if I need to Re-Install Windows when I had activated the Windows using MSDN Product Key??

 

You mention slmgr - from the elevated command prompt, slmgr /dlv gives you the license information: RETAIL CHANNEL, or OEM SLP etc
Superfly's Showkey will also reveal some interesting information about your key(s):

Showkey - Windows 10 Forums

I may well be wrong, but MSDN keys are retail, aren't they, and Dreamspark educational? There's a discussion here:

Solved - Windows 10 Forums

 

My pc was clean installed with win10 after upgrading to Win10 earlier from Win7 OEM.
slmgr /dlv (elevated prompt) only shows Product Key Channel: Retail
So I can't tell if its an OEM vs retail version which allows installing Win10 clean on a new build with a new motherboard.

Yes, thats the problem. I want to find out whether activation keys that I was offered to buy is from MSDN/Dreamspark instead of normal retail.

 

If you run showkey, it will check user input key characters to show what type they are, as well as the current key and earlier keys, and indicators of Windows 7 SLIC markers in the BIOS and embedded windows 8 keys if relevant - that's why I gave the link. The check backup will retrieve the information from Windows old\windows\system32\config\SOFTWARE - the registry hive on the version upgraded from, if you still have windows.old, or a backup image stored elsewhere that you can mount and view.

checking part of the product key string on google is also a good indicator of whether the key may be blocked - if you find it, it's blocked, or will be.

Thirdly, if the price is too good to be true, well, don't touch it, unless you can trust the source.

As a footnote - all Windows 10 upgrade keys from previous OEM upgrades state they are retail, as the Windows 10 key is not now the major feature in validating the OS - the first activation and the device hardware determine the digital entitlement, and on transfer, if you have a 7 or 8x retail key as your qualifying purchase, that will serve to activate 10, even if you need to call Microsoft activation for the privilege.

 

One thing to keep in mind, though, is that Microsoft only offered to upgrade DEVICES running Windows 7/8/8.1 to Windows 10 for free until end of July this year. After July, I would not expect to be able to activate Windows 10 with a Windows 7/8/8.1 product key on a new device that has not had Windows 10 on it before for free even though the person may be moving their retail Windows license from an old computer to a new one.

 

That's absolutely true, but I guess if you have bought a (fully transferable) retail 7 or 8 key and received a digital entitlement upgrade on one machine, then it is arguable that the retail transferability should follow the upgrade trail, in the same way that the non-transferability of OEM 7 and 8 upgrades that will expire with the device. No doubt there will be test cases, and a clear ruling on transferability of licenses to devices in due course.

The relevant part of the Windows 10 EULA is part 4b.

Reading that, an upgrade of a retail (stand alone) earlier version of Windows is equivalent to a retail (stand alone) version of Windows 10 acquired from Microsoft or their official retail channels. If the latter is transferable, then surely the former is. No special terms for the Free offer nature of the upgrade are mentioned.

I recall that Tenforums member @simrick posted a transcript of a long online discussion of this very point with a Microsoft advisor. The punch line was:

Forced Download $Windows.~BT folder appeared - Page 2 - Windows 10 Forums

...and the following posts to the end of the thread seem to confirm the conclusion.

What do you think?

 

Presently, when pushed to do so by customers, Microsoft has honored the retail-to-retail upgrade EULA by providing retail Windows 10 product keys. However, Microsoft has responded to inquiries by stating that this is a free promotional offer, they are only required to fulfill the conditions of that offer - which is to upgrade DEVICES currently running Windows 7/8/8.1 to Windows 10 for free - which is more limited in scope than upgrading the Windows 7/8/8.1 LICENSE to Windows 10.

The terms and conditions of the upgrade offer are in the fine print at the bottom of this page:
How to Upgrade to Windows 10 - Microsoft

I suspect that when pressured to do so Microsoft will continue to provide retail Windows 10 product keys upon presentation of evidence that the customer had a Windows 7/8/8.1 Retail license because it is just cheaper for them to do so then defend a lawsuit.

 

As far as I've always thought, there are no versions of retail. The keys are either OEM or retail, meaning all retail keys are subject to the same rules.

 

Windows 7 MSDN (retail) keys are grouped and can be identified by it's PID but my Win 8 MSDN/Dreamspark keys do not have that grouping - instead they seems to follow a general retail pattern. I need to analyse them a bit more as it's was a good indicator why Win 7 installations got deactivated (i.e. MSDN keys that got sold to many and subsequently blocked due to overuse)

BTW: The possibility of transferability post 31 July will be interesting, I agree.