Windows 10: W10 licence transfer. What happens if I change/upgrade my PC later on?

Yes, I've been using the Windows 10 previews from the beginning so I know I'd be happy with the OS itself. It's only the finer details of the installation process (with the free upgrade) that bug me. I've reached an age where I find myself drawn to the things that make life simpler, not more complicated! *chuckle

 

Only a small percentage of people have transferable licenses. the 95% of the rest of people with OEM copies will be able to re-install on the same hardware without a key being needed. Eventually (in several years), most of the people with upgrade licenses will have bought new PC's that came with new OEM WIndows 10 licenses.

 

So why not give out a new product key to everyone who upgrades from a retail licence and make 100% of users happy?

 

I guess because will use that Keys to make their money by selling it :/

 

I've never bought a PC with Windows preloaded and never will. Windows 10 has been pitched at gamers (for DX12) who usually build their own computers and regularly tinker with upgrades and modifications. The free Windows 10 upgrade is going to be a pain in the proverbial for those who do frequent reinstalls because of major hardware changes.

I thought the whole idea was to get everyone onto Windows 10 as soon as possible through the free upgrade. How ironic that you have to install your old OS first in order to transfer the licence! *Huh

 

Would anyone know if this applies to a MSDNAA copy of windows 8? I received my copy through my university, so would it be treated as a retail purchase?

 

Couple of things. First is that you need to be running Win8.1, Win8 is not part of the upgrade program (but check anyways). Next, this is a volume license, not a retail or OEM license. Businesses with their volume licenses are not scheduled for upgrades until Aug 1st. Finally, the only real difference between retail and OEM is that you cannot transfer the license to another computer.
Are you still using this for school? If so, check with the IT dept. as they usually frown on students messing things up for them!

 

No, John. this is wrong, wrong, wrong... like everything else you keep posting on this subject.

Windows 8 *IS* part of the upgrade program, and is eligible for a free upgrade. You just can't use Windows Update to upgrade, you need to download media to perform the upgrade. This has been posted for 6 months, along with various charts that show which versions of Windows can use Windows Update, and which require ISO Media.

Here it is again.





By the way, today is August 2nd.

 

Thanks for the response John, I'm not all that worried about it being Windows 8 as I can just upgrade it fully to 8.1 and in theory still upgrade like anyone else. I just don't want the hassle. I've been on the phone with Microsoft practically all day and gotten no where slowly. So I'm looking at all of my options.

From what I understand I had a copy of the insider beta that I then upgraded to a full Windows 10 copy. I then created a recovery disk of that instance. All of this was through VMWare workstation so I am not certain I could install it on a physical machine and be off and running.

Secondly, I still have the version of Windows 8 that i mentioned earlier. So in theory I should be able to install it, upgrade it fully to 8.1 with all updates and then upgrade to 10 from there, all in-place. Then with that It should be a fully activated copy.

This sucks.

 

Mystere, So I should be able to reinstall windows 8, and then run the media creation tool and just upgrade? This would leave me with an activated copy of Windows 10 pro?

 

Yes, so long as:

a) You upgrade directly from the MCT (there is an option to do this), or you choose to keep all files and settings during an install from media.

b) Your current copy of Windows 8 is activated and genuine

c) you created media from the same version you are upgrading from (ie if it's Windows 8, it has to be Windows 10 Home, if it's Windows 8 Pro it has to be Windows 10 Pro).

 

I am not worried about being able to update a Win 8/8.1 computer to Win10, what I am worried about is that it is a computer that is used to connect to the school's network. The colleges and universities get large discounts from MS but the student does get a school version of an OEM disk ( my son got one from Brown University). Some others just use a business type of license scheme if they give the student a laptop. A personal machine would work just like any other OEM version of Win8.1 to upgrade to Win10. That is still not a problem. The real issue is what does the school's IT department say about updating to Win10? Yes, it is your own computer but the IT guys may not have a way yet for handling a tunnel IP into the school's network using things like edge or having the software recognize the New OS. As for a laptop given out by the school, they push a lot of updates over the network and you can royally screw up the computer by messing this up. Check with the school before doing any upgrade. Please!

 

Then you may aswell use Daz loader since this is able to upgrade your system to genuine Windows 10. And that free upgrade offer only lasts for a year.

 

Once you have upgraded, then your previous Product Key is authorized to upgrade to Windows 10 even after the year is up, so you can transfer it and it will still activate after the year is up.

 

Mystere, good news! Do you have a source for this tho? If this is true, I could upgrade several of my Win8.1 retail keys to win10 and then use them for new installs years from now. The Win8.1 is authorized by 1. the product key and 2. by the computer's hardware hash code after the install. Since MS is saying that any retail version of win8.1 can be transferred to a new computer, but the hash code that lets the original computer upgrade would not work on a new computer. So the question is, is the Win8.1 product key really marked for transfer and upgrades after a year? Where is that product key's "right to be upgraded" stored? The hash code is stored on MS servers but I never heard that the product key from the original install is as well.