Windows 10: Transferring a Win 10 to a new PC, with a free upgrade license

This may already have been answered, but I haven't seen it answered in a way that I thought captured the significant details.

Scenario: I have a PC with a retail copy of Win 8.1 Pro installed and activated. I get the free Win 10 Pro upgrade by download. I create an .iso from the .esd file.

Because Win 8.1 is a retail license, I could legitimately transfer it to a new PC, as long as I removed it from the old PC.

I presume that I could use that to qualify the new PC for the free Win 10 upgrade, as long as I did it before the free upgrade offer expires in 2016.

If I wished to transfer the Win10 installation to a new PC after that time:

Would Microsoft regard it as legitimate? (Does the free upgrade preserve the "retailness" of the qualifying license?)

How would it work?

(The Windows 8 upgrade provided a key. The upgrade license was transferable. It also cost $40US. MS limited the time during which they'd sell you the key, but the key was good indefinitely.)

At a guess, the free upgrade will not be transferable after the free upgrade offer expires.

Another question, mostly unrelated:

Suppose that I've done the upgrade on a PC. Its hard drive dies. I wish to use the .iso I created above to do a fresh install on a new hard drive in the original PC, which will be unchanged otherwise. Is there a way to do that without re-installing and activating the qualifying OS? (Some people have seemed to suggest that when Win10 is installed on a blank HD, the PC will send a hardware hash to MS's activation server. The server will recognize the PC, and activate the new install. That sounds possible, but it's not exactly like the activation procedure for older versions of Windows. They wanted a key.)

I'd like to know of official and unofficial ways to re-install the Win 10 free upgrade on a blank HD.

For comparison: if I wish to install Win 8.1 on a blank HD using an upgrade license, I'm supposed to run it as an upgrade over an installed and activated qualifying OS. There is a simple (hack free) work-around that makes it unnecessary to have the older OS installed. I wonder whether something similar will be available for 10.

:)

 

I need to transfer a windows 10 lisence to a new PC

If you can get Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 on the new PC with a genuine activated license, then you can run the upgrade there for the next 11 months and still get a free upgrade.

But as zigzag said, you can't transfer the Windows 10 license. It has the same rights as an OEM version, which means it is licensed to that machine and not transferable.

Best bet is to get Win 7 or Win 8.1 on the new machine then upgrade that machine the same way. Or just go directly to Windows 10 and buy the license.

 

Installing Windows 10 onto new PC

 

I'll venture a guess that you will not be able to transfer the copy of WIn10 to a new device. The free upgrade is for the life of the device you did the upgrade on.

But I'm sure a more clear answer will come shortly.

 

*Ditto

 

Hmmm...

9 hours without a full reply. Maybe the answers are unknown, at least to those who are free to comment.

I may have to wait until after 29 July, after people can test various scenarios for themselves.

 

The answer is simple.. you can't. The upgrade is for the life of the device you upgrade to Win10 on. As far as I and some other know you can't transfer it to another PC. Heck, you might but you would have to try that yourself.

 

Microsoft is being generous with the free upgrade offer, but I expect some restrictions so people don't try to abuse it to get more out of it than was originally intended. I'm not saying you are one of those people, but we all know they are out there. "for the life of the device" is what I've read also. Which to me means non transferable. When that device dies that free upgrade dies with it.

 

If you upgrade a transferable retail channel license, Windows 10 will inherit the retail channel transferability. If you upgrade an OEM license, it will be tied to the OEM machine the license originally came with. You get what you paid for.

From an admin command prompt the system license manager script (*Start+x, A, yes, type slmgr -dlv, enter) will tell you your license channel. Microsoft has said that the license type will be preserved on upgrade.

If you were lucky enough to upgrade your Win7 OEM PC to a Win 8 Pro license cheaply, you have a retail license, which is yours with a Win10 upgrade, a full retail license.

Solved Win 8 Pro u/g allowed transferability, will Win 10 u/g change this? - Windows 10 Forums

 

My 10240 shows Retail channel. This was an upgrade from a Windows 7 OEM install.

 

I like that answer. I'd like it even better if it came from an authorized post by a Microsoft employee rather than an MVP, but it's probably accurate.

It would have been good if there had been a description of the mechanics of the transfer, but I'll continue to wait for those. (If it requires installing the OS that qualified the upgrade and then performing the upgrade, it'd be OK, but awkward.)

It's pretty much academic for me at the moment. My latest PC build was last December. Any new one would be for someone else, and he/she would receive a retail or System Builder copy of the OS of choice.

It's likely that I'll never wish to transfer Windows to new hardware again, but I'd like to know the rules, just in case.

 

You won't get that on this forum, this site is not an official Microsoft site, nor in anyway associated with it as stated at the bottom of the screen.

 

The link ultimately was to answers.microsoft.com. I believe that's an MS operated site, although the poster was not an MS employee.