Windows 10: Product Key Question.....

Hi, I successfully upgraded from Win 8.1 Pro to Win 10 Pro using the 'MediaCreator' setup tool (for some reason, I never received a notification about my reserved copy) and it activated itself without a problem. I plan to do a clean install at some stage, so I also downloaded a win 10 pro x64 .ISO using the same tool for this purpose. However, I'm wondering about the product key. Will I need it for a clean install? I downloaded a utility called 'produkey' which retrieves the installed key of the OS and it's showing a key which I found out to be a generic win 10 pro key. So, my installed key is generic, yet my OS is activated, which I find a little strange. Will I be able to do my clean install with this key and will it activate? I thought Microsoft would've given us a unique key for this purpose.

:)

 

Product Key Question

Hi I ended up doing Microsoft web chat bought a key for £30 and they took over machine and got it going for me.

 

Product Key Question

What kind of problems are you having when buying a new key? Is there any error code of some sort? What happens when you try to buy a new key?

To activate Windows 10, go to settings, click Update & Security, then click Activation. Click "change product key " to change your product key, and if you need a new one, click "Go to Store" to buy a new key.

 

Duh, a quick browse though this forum has put me right. Everyone who upgrades gets the same generic key for their particular version of Win 10 and it's the hardware ID of the machine which gets saved on the MS activation servers that determines whether it will activate, right? So what do you do if you want to upgrade your PC hardware, like say, your motherboard? Won't that cause problems?

 

MS has embarked on a store-based licencing methodology for the free upgrade - The built-in key is only required to install and for product identificaton purposes...
It does make reinstalling a lot easier in my opinion - also removes the loophole of having the same licence installed on multiple devices.

 

Yes, but what to do if I upgrade, say, my motherboard - like how to activate after clean install then?

 

If you make the serious hardware change you need to buy new windows 10 that will be 119$ *Smile