Windows 10: Windows 10 Home > Windows 7 Pro > Windows 10 Pro

Maybe, I think they'll just stop reading 8 keys. Then you get the selection menu, pick your correct version, install with skip key, and activate with your digital entitlement. Just like 10240 ISO did. We'll just have to wait and see what they do. I find the auto reading the 8 keys with no choice in the matter a bit of an inconvenience, to be honest.

 

Microsoft isn't catering to computer literate people. Microsoft is catering to those that just want to push the power button and let everything happen automatically for them. And heck, how many threads have you read already on here saying, "Why can't I activate my Windows 10?!?!" and it is because they installed the wrong version - IE: Pro vs. Home, Single Language or N?

 

Totally agree, for the average Joe it simplifies things. All I'm saying is there is a flip side to that, where it actually complicates things. There are some who were running 10 Pro 10240. Then did a clean install of 10586 and got Home with no say in the matter and no option to select Pro. People are always going to be snagged by the SL edition. The regular Windows 10 ISO won't read those keys. You have to know up front you have a SL key and use the SL ISO for the embedded key to be used. Anyway, it will be interesting to see what they do when the free offer expires. Even then, there won't be anything stopping you from using what ever ISO was last released before that date, and before anything was changed.

 

It works. I again clean installed Windows 7, then in-place upgraded to Windows 10 (which forced Home Edition). I then provided the generic 10 Pro key which enabled Pro features, but did not activate. I then provided my 7 Pro key which activated Windows properly.

I added the PID.txt file to the (USB) installation media which had the generic 10 Pro key, clean installed 10 using the newest MCT, and it installed and activated 10 Pro.

Nice.

 

I don't know if that's how it's supposed to work, but it doesn't (not with a pre-installed embedded BIOS key anyway).

 

As much as I want to agree with this, I think it would confuse non-IT savvy people. Getting prompted for something they know nothing about won't go down well.

I think the current method of adding a PID.txt file is probably better.

 

What would be better is if they developed a generic network driver that would always work (even with future hardware) during the install phase, so it could check digital entitlement before choosing the version to install.

I appreciate that would involve work from NIC vendors, but wouldn't be rocket science, as it would only need basic features, and maybe even only talkable to MS activation servers.

 

If you just run setup.exe on the ISO "from" within your currently installed Windows, it should upgrade depending on what version your upgrading from, not based on the embedded key? Are you saying it doesn't if you install that way? Just want to confirm. If you boot from your install media BIOS key takes precedent, as far as I know. My hard drive was blank so there was no OS to be detected at all.

 

Yeah, either way it going to confuse some. It will be interesting to see what changes after July 2016 though.