At what point is your system registered as 'activated' after W10 install?

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Incindre

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#177823 15-Aug-2015 13:11

This isn't a question for the mega thread I feel, as it's about the installation process versus the post-upgrade environment.

I upgraded from W7 Pro to W10 Pro a few days after the upgrade came out. It worked, though I immediately turned the PC off on seeing it completed.
On sign-in the next day the OS was unusable (system hangs and complete freezing almost instantly) so after numerous restarts and attempted troubleshooting with MSCONFIG, I rolled back to trusty Win7.
I always run into these sorts of issues, and that is why I prefer to clean install every time, but I had to upgrade so it would recognise my valid Win7 key and give me the goods.

Now, my question is, even though W10 was only on my system for about an hour (and 90% of that time locked up) will my system's hardware signature be registered with Microsoft as 'activated'? Will I be able to fresh install a Win10 ISO and have it activate happily, or will I have to format and clean install Windows 7 and then upgrade to Windows 10?

Batman

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#1366868 15-Aug-2015 13:14

industrial secret/ proprietary algorithm/ commercially sensitive perhaps?

nathan

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#1366875 15-Aug-2015 13:20

if you have your Win7 activated:

run SETUP.EXE *from within Windows 8.1 so that it can detect that you have a licensed, activated OS*.

Then when it asks what you want to migrate, choose “nothing” or “data only”.

That will result in a “clean” Windows 10 OS that can successfully activate.

Batman

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#1366906 15-Aug-2015 13:52

Incindre: I upgraded from W7 Pro to W10 Pro a few days after the upgrade came out. It worked, though I immediately turned the PC off on seeing it completed.
?

did you apply "shutdown" command or switched off using a physical switch?

Incindre

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#1366920 15-Aug-2015 14:24

nathan: Then when it asks what you want to migrate, choose “nothing” or “data only”.

That will result in a “clean” Windows 10 OS that can successfully activate.

Where you say "clean" install, it doesn't actually wipe the HDD though does it? You still have the backup of your old OS (which may be an issue as I'm running an SSD with limited space). In my experience it's always better to do a proper clean install because of my software curse, if there is the possibility for something to go wrong, it will go wrong.

joker97:did you apply "shutdown" command or switched off using a physical switch?

Used the power off command in the start menu like a normal human. I believe the issue may have had something to do with the Search Indexing, but the OS corrupted and became unbootable before I had a chance to completely troubleshoot it.

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#1366957 15-Aug-2015 15:52

i have not read of any software curse in any windows 10 upgrade far ....

ibelieve nathan's "clean" install technique will not keep your data ... (i could be wrong)

Regs

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Snowflake

#1371271 21-Aug-2015 00:13

the upgrade clean install keeps a windows.old directory, but you can kill that with the disk cleanup program afterwards and reclaim the space. your partitions don't get redone via this method, and it doesn't wipe the hdd, just deleted other files and dirs. and user profiles.

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gbwelly

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#1371280 21-Aug-2015 07:14

Incindre:
Used the power off command in the start menu like a normal human. I believe the issue may have had something to do with the Search Indexing, but the OS corrupted and became unbootable before I had a chance to completely troubleshoot it.

Not using an OCZ SSD are you?