Windows 10: W7 -> W10 + hardware changout

I build my PC about 5 years ago, my first build.

I've been thinking of upgrading my MB, processor and RAM and think now is a good time to do it before I activate my W10 upgrade.

I bought Window 7 retail originally, not OEM. I have the box and have verified it as retail using the cmd line as well.

What's the best way to do this? Microsoft says I need to complete the update before I can do a clean install. It's in bold all over their site...

I've already made a bootable media via their program.

so do I...

Upgrade my old hardware to 10 via Windows Update
Deactiviate windows from my machine via cmd.ex
change out the hardware, do a clean install from the W10 disc
Enter my W7 key when promoted?

One site suggest I install 7 on my new machine, but the MB is so new, there's a few people that have reported problems getting w7 to install, so if I can avoid that, I'd prefer it.

Thanks in advance

:)

 

W10 to W7 "How to get out of W10."

Original title: W10 to W7

Nobody seems to be able to answer the question of "How to get out of W10." No answer works as it is impossible to go to settings>update & security>recovery. My question is --does anyone really know how to eliminate W10 from computer and get back to W7 without
crashing entire computer, reloading W7 and losing all stored data.

 

Can I install W10 free upgrade to a separate partition on a W7 (legal) machine so I can have dual boot option ?

*O.T.> W10 Free upgrade

Can I install W10 free upgrade to a separate partition on a W7 (legal) machine so I can have dual boot option ?

Or does W10 Free upgrade overwrite W7 during installation ?

TIA

 

What is likely to happen if you do a clean install of Windows 10 on the new motherboard without installing Windows 7 on it first is that Microsoft will return a message that "the product key is in use on another computer" and you will have to go back and install Windows 7 on it, activate that (probably via phone activation), then activate Windows 10. You can try it. Microsoft may activate your Windows 10, and if they don't all you have wasted is a little bit of time.

What I did when I built my new computer was installed the bare minimum Windows 7 retail on it, never connected to the internet so it did not start running any updates, activated it with phone activation, captured the genuineticket.xml file using Windows 10 gatherosstate.exe, then deleted all the partitions on the SSD and clean installed Windows 10 and activated it with the genuineticket.xml file.

Note: when you "deregister" a computer by running slmgr /upk (for uninstall product key) - the only thing that affects is the local computer itself. It does not erase or reset any records of activations of that product key stored on Microsoft activation servers.

 

Thank for the info.

The guy over at PC Mech forums who helped me build 5 years ago, and now is helping me upgrade - jsut said that since I made a install disc with the create media tool - that more than likely all I'll have to do is just install w10 on the new hardware, and enter my w7 product key.

Most likely he says that will work, and worse case I'll have to call and tell them I swapped out my hardware, that w7 is no longer installed on any machine with that key - and it will get pushed through.

Does that sound right?

 

You would be taking your chances with whomever answers the phone at Microsoft. Simply taking an extra 30 minutes at most to install and activate a Windows 7 would 99.9% guarantee your success for activating Windows 10.

 

Yeah, I might do that.

I'm a little concerned, the new board is so new, that people have had issues geting W7 on it. Lots of work arounds. And if I use a m.2 drive, windows7 wont see it all.

 

This is accurate.

 

If you install windows 10, and it complains 7 key is in use, one neat trick is to install windows 7 on a usb drive using UEFI boot manager, Windows To Go Creator, All-in-One Microsoft Windows Setup software - The EasyUEFI Development Team.

Then you boot from that usb drive on new pc, use telephone activation, then you can activate the clean installed version of windows 10 ie you do not affect current clean install.

 

You don't need a full Windows 7 install with everything working. Mouse, keyboard, basic display driver and a way to store the genuineticket.xml file is all you need.

 

You can use Win7 retails key to install Windows 10 I have done that on my new motherboard and its activated without any problem.

 

@matfx, so you had old motherboard/processor with Windows 7 retail. You put in new MB/processor and went straight to W10 with no problem?

I assume you used the media creation tool to make a DVD?

 

The ability to activate a new Windows 10 installation with a Windows 7 product key depends upon the condition of the Windows 7 product key. My Windows 7 retail product key has been used so many times that it will not activate online and I have to use phone activation. If that is the case with the Windows 7 product key, then the only way to activate Windows 10 with it is to install Windows 7 first, activate that over the phone, then use the genuineticket.xml file to activate Windows 10 on that same computer.

If your Windows 7 product key has not been blocked from online activation - then yes, you can activate Windows 10 with it by just manually entering it in Windows 10.

The problem is that you probably won't know the condition of your Windows 7 product key until you try to use it for an online activation.

 

Thanks for the reply.

I know the condition-ish, of mine.

I bought my retail copy when I built my machine in 2011. Used it once on the first install.

I did swap to a SSD drive a few year later, but all other hardware was the same, and I dont recall having to enter my key that time.

But I get what you are saying, I won't know if I'm blocked or not - until I try to do it. I think likely I won't be.

I'm really trying to avoid the whole hassle of w7 first install, since there's that whole messy issue of USB drivers on 100 series for w7 to use during install, and while 1 motherboard I'm looking at does have 1 PS2 port I could keyboard-only my way through...the other has no ps2 ports and while I'm sure making a custom install DVD isn't horrible ...bleh...

 

@alvehyanna,

Exactly, I'm changing my old motherboard (socket 775), pentium dual core E5400 processor and 4gb ddr2 to new skylake motherboard (H110M-D, socket 1151). core i3 6100 processor and 8Gb ddr4 ram. I'm reused back my HDD , DVD drive and casing.

You don't need to install Windows 7 again on new hardware, just proceed with Windows 10 installation and insert your Windows 7 retail key, i have done that and it's working and activated.