Windows 10: Win10 upgrade and a retail purchase of Win10 Pro- not the same.

So i have confirmed and went back and re asked my friend he did a clean install after he upgraded initially first, i had it wrong the first time so sorry for that.

 

Hi there

There was NO EMBEDDED key -- this PC does NOT have protected BIOS although it can do UEFI - but that was also switched off.

This was a totally ckean install on a MBR formatted disk. In fact if you try and boot from the EFI menu in the BIOS nothing happens as I haven't installed the UEFI version.

I'll try another update on a really OLD desktop and see what it comes out with.

It should be interesting to see if the product key changes as I'll be using the same W8.1 serial number that I used on the laptop

(TechNet multiple activations so it should work to get an activated copy of W10 then to do another clean install).

Cheers
jimbo

 

Hi there

Thanks

A lot of people assume stuff and post --I usually try and test stuff out - and where possible If I haven't yet tried something I say I THINK it will work and will test later !!.

Cheers
jimbo

 

I didn't say it was an embedded key, just that showkey will show it, if one's there. If you now do a clean install of Windows 10 on that same PC, showkey will only show you the Windows 10 key. That's all that's there to be detected. Might even be a different key to, if you don't enter any key during the install. Which is what Gabe tweeted you can do.

 

Using Read Write Everything, I no longer have an MSDM table in my UEFI BIOS which is where the old Win8.1 SN was located. I have to assume that ANY Win10 activations that come from a clean install on my computer after doing an upgrade will be coming only from my MS account.

 

You probably don't even need to sign in. The hardware id of your computer has been logged into the activation server, so it recognizes you. I don't use such an account, and I'm activated.

 

Same here, I don't use a microsoft account. I upgraded then checked it was activated properly, then installed from scratch using the bootable distribution made with windows 10 media creation tool, skipping the enter your license prompts, and my clean install activated itself automatically, no problem.
Just checked with RWeverything and my original license is still in uefi/bios (under the MSDM tab in ACPI Table).

 

"I no longer have an MSDM table in my UEFI BIOS " because you erased it? That statement confuses me? You had one but now you don't?

 

Windows doesn't do anything to the BIOS, so if you had an embedded key before, you still have one now. Windows 10 install media likely ignores it unless its a Windows 10 embedded key. New OEM PC's are going to ship with embedded Windows 10 keys now I would think.

 

I'll tell you why not. You purchase a retail license Windows 10 Pro. That gives you the rights to have it installed on only one computer at a time. You install that licensed copy on your existing (old) computer. When you build the new one, you have to remove the OS from the old computer and MOVE it to the new computer - you can't have it installed on both at the same time.

or

You use the free upgrade on your old computer. That gives you a Windows 10 license for the old computer which is valid for the life of that old computer. You can clean install it as many times as you want on the old computer. (Such as hard drive replacement or hard drive upgrade). Now, 1 1/2 years from now you build a new computer and you purchase a Windows 10 retail license for it. Now what do you have? You have your old computer with a still valid license and you have a new computer with a license. All you did by buying your license today is cheated yourself out of the free license you would have gotten from MS. Your initial post is pretty much babble.

Back in the day, I purchased a special Windows 8 upgrade from the Navy Exchange that was good for three computers - with only one key. I upgraded 3 computers with it and then upgraded those to Windows 10 for free. Now I have three licenses for Windows 10 that are good for as many times as I want to install it for the life of and on those computers.

 

Is this why my friend and me have the same CD-Key when we upgraded?
Literally, it's the same.

 

I'm not sure where to begin in tearing apart this utter drivel.

Lets start with looks like windows 10...well that would imply that it's still windows 8 or 7....So you think I don't have DX 12 that's cute, I hope you keep thinking that when you realise many features in Windows 10 simply could never work in windows 8 let alone windows 7 as they simply don't have the back end coding to support them.

The limited rights you refer to are to do with upgrade rights, The windows 10 we install is free to transfer to another PC providing we do it within in the upgrade year and preinstall windows 7-8 then install windows 10 upgrade then clean install windows 10 on top of that making it a clean install on a valid licence key.

I think it's pretty obvious we will have to buy a new copy of windows 10 outside of that upgrade year if we want to upgrade our PC's. Seems like a really obvious thing to do given the major changes coming to the PC industry over the next few years that will mean everything we think is great now will look like crap in a few years.

I expect better on this forum.

 

Yes. You don't get a real key with the upgrade.

 

When Windows 10 is activated for the first time, it creates an anonymous hardware ID (called a hash) that is stored on Microsoft servers. Theoretically, every computer will generate a unique hardware ID which stays the same unless you change a major component such as the motherboard or processor. The first thing a new Windows 10 upgrade or clean install does to activate is create the hardware ID from your computer and see if it exists in Microsoft's database from a previous activation. If it does, it activates - license keys are completely ignored. If that hardware ID does not exist, then it looks for a valid license key. If it finds a valid license key (on your system or that you enter manually), then it enters the hardware ID it created from your computer into the Microsoft database and activates - future activations on that same computer, such as future clean installs, will activate from that Hardware ID that was saved in the Microsoft database.

That is why most Windows 10 upgrades will have the same license key - it isn't really used for activation - it's just there to fill a legacy spot. The Hardware ID has replaced the license keys for activation. And that is also why Windows 10 will activate even on a computer where the user isn't using a Microsoft user account - it's tied to the computer hardware ID, not an account.

The only people who will have issues are those that want to move their license from one computer to another because the hardware ID will be different. But Microsoft has made that pretty simple too. You call them, enter in the code that Windows gives you for activation, answer a recorded voice prompt that your windows (or office) license is installed on only computer, and it activates with the new hardware ID generated from the new computer.

 

Wow, thanks for all that information. *Smile
+rep.