Windows 10: Reinstalling Windows 10 without a licence key

Hi,


I have a 10 year old laptop which originally was running Windows Vista. Due to the manufacturer date of the laptop, I was entitled to the free upgrade to Windows 7, which I kept until the roll-out of the Windows 10 upgrade. When my laptop upgraded to Windows 10, I did not pay for the upgrade and did not receive a licence key.

1. If I go to the Windows 10 download tool and select install with the 'keep Nothing during the upgrade' option, will I require a licence key?
2. Can I build the laptop from scratch if it was originally a Visa machine or will I need to step from Vista to 8.1 to 10?

Regards


Keith

:)

 

How to reinstall Windows 10 if my computers used the free upgrade from 7 and 8?

Will windows 10 still accept the license keys from 7 and 8 now if I reinstall my computer?

Does Microsoft keep a list of users who upgraded to Win 10 using their 7 and 8 keys so that when users need to reinstall windows 10 the old keys would work?

Do I need to call in Microsoft to ask them to activate my Windows 10 when I give them my win 7 keys?

Both computers are laptops. The windows 7 machine had the serial printed on the back, and I needed to enter that when I upgraded to 10. The windows 8 machine had the serial built in inside its boot system so I didn't need to enter the key when I upgraded to 10, but I did manage to write down the keys using a fetcher program.

 

windows 10 key

Thanks but I don't want to do any decrypting. I want to download a Win 10 ISO from Microsoft and install it using my Win 8 key. No other steps required. Is that possible?

 

windows 10 key

You need to upgrade the first time around. Once you upgrade, you can use that key for a clean installation. I've done 2 clean installations with my Windows 7 key since I upgraded to 10 the first time around.