Windows 10: Windows 10: More free upgrade and activation questions answered

Read more: Windows 10: More free upgrade and activation questions answered | ZDNet

See also: Your Windows 10 Activation Questions, Answered - Thurrott.com

 

Interesting reading. Thanks.

:)

 

Will I be able to upgrade from the Windows 10 Insider Preview to the final release?

Original Title: I have a question. Please answer me anyone who know about this. Correct Answer is very helpful for me.

I am an Insider Program user of Windows 10. I know that, I can free upgrade to Windows 10 RTM. But my question is, Shall I need a genuine license key for activate Windows 10 RTM after upgrade? Or Will it totally free/no activation required for me that I
can use Windows 10 RTM/final version? Please help me a correct answer.

 

Fresh Full Install

Answer to your first question is No. The free version does not use product keys

To get an activated free version of Windows 10 you must first upgrade the existing Windows 7 or 8. Once that is done, and it is activated, in most cases you can then do a clean install and retain activation.

The answer to your second question is yes, from the Microsoft Store and some retail outlets.

 

From:

Your Windows 10 Activation Questions, Answered - Thurrott.com

We see:

"Can I activate my free Windows 10 upgrade after the July 29 cut-off date?

Yep. Assuming you downloaded the Anniversary Update download before August 1, you can start and finish Setup, and activate successfully, at any time in the future.
“If the download finishes and they are in the install phase, the install will finish and they will in fact be activated and be just fine,” the documentation notes. “The deadline cuts off the download only.”

This indicates that the download available to Insiders (the one I saved) is in some way different from the upgrade offered for general release after August 2nd - is this so?

 

But the Anniversary Update wasn't available for download until August 2, so how can this be a true statement???

Total confusion and disbelief for me. Although I don't have to worry if it's true or not, since I upgraded way back when . . .

 

I'm guessing that's an error - if it said "downloaded the Windows 10 Upgrade before 1 August" (or 30 July, but maybe the weekend didn't count) it would make a whole lot more sense.

But it also suggests that there will be a perpetual way to upgrade, and I also wonder if the gatherosstate tool method will continue to work because I assume that's related.

 

It seems to depend on the 1607 update available to Insiders on 20th July (available for download before 01 August 2016) being subtly different to the 1607 update available to all users after 02 August 2016. and the truth of Thurrot's statement.

 

What the anniversary update is is the latest of the Redstone 1 builds. Several RS1 Insider Preview builds also qualify as permanent activation with the August 2nd 14393.10 being the general RTM type release of same. If you already saw 10 activated before/by the July 29th deadline the Redstone 1 Anniversary build simply becomes as easy as previous versions saw service packs applied and retain the activation status. The hardware profile of the system was already recorded into the MS Activation data base.

 

Indeed (regarding the difference of 1607 builds), but why is Thurrot (or MS) limiting ability of upgrade (we are talking 7,. 8 to 10 and not 10 RTM to AU) to 1607 release and not to all releases before?

 

have some nice computers that I couldn't upgrade to 10

 

The Anniversary update didn't even arrive on any pc here first being the main where the Get insider builds option was canceled for the 385 buiild while the second testing system still sees that option enabled. A 3rd desktop previously upgraded from 7 HP x64 to 10 Home as well as recently brand new 10 laptop never saw it either. I had to manually mount the iso downloaded by way of MC Tool to manually start the upgrade to update process.

The Insider Preview builds are far from over with however. Within the next few weeks perhaps the next build will be announced when the next developer build which is mostly what those are is ready for testing updates to come on.

Be aware of one odd issue being seen for some with a new error about Insider settings needing attention following the Redstone 1 Anniversary update going on. Suddenly this one has been surfacing not only on a thread here but at the MS discussion sites as well.

 

Do I need to be online when I install the Anniversary update?

 

To activate, yes.

 

Lost track of what thread I was in, lol. You may also have to be online to upgrade, all depends on how your doing the upgrade. If you have created install media, you can upgrade offline. It won't activate but you can upgrade with no Internet connection. If your doing an upgrade now from the Media Creation Tool, you need to be online at least until it downloads the setup files and reboots for the first time.