Windows 10 upgrade License question

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Talkiet

4232 posts

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# 184012 6-Nov-2015 13:17

I currently have win10 installed. It is an upgrade from Win 8.1, which was an upgrade from WIn 8, which was an upgrade from Win7. It all works just fine EXCEPT that the machine cannot shutdown or restart. It Bluescreens every time. It only does it on shutdown though so I have just lived with it.

However I now would like to upgrade to a larger SSD and I figure it's about time I bit the bullet and installed fresh rather than reimaging.

2 questions:

1) Can I just install fresh onto a new SSD (rest of PC the same) and it will magically pick up my license from the Internet? (I think this is the case but want to be sure)

2) (And this is the tricky one) I would like to keep my old install around as a second boot disk for a few days/weeks to I can refer back to it to see what I missed installing in the new OS. (ie I want to boot into the old win10 from time to time, NOT just look at the contents of the disk. Will booting into 2 different copies of Win10 on the same machine alternately result in MS sending round the thugs or doing anything nasty to the activation of one or other of the copies?

Looking at you Nathan!

Cheers - N

Please note all comments are the product of my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

BoydHQ

39 posts

Geek

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# 1422371 6-Nov-2015 13:22

2 people support this post

Short answer is yes and yes.

I was in the same situation as you. I installed a new copy of Windows 10 onto a new SSD and it activated fine. When it asks for the Product key don't enter anything.

Since then i've been swapping the two drives back and forth as i'm slowly installing apps on the new install and then swapping back to old disk.

So far i haven't had any issues.

Talkiet

4232 posts

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# 1422375 6-Nov-2015 13:29

Thanks for that - I didn't think it would be a particularly uncommon occurrence in the geek community. Glad it seems to work.

Cheers - N

Please note all comments are the product of my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

phantomdb

546 posts

Ultimate Geek

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# 1422446 6-Nov-2015 15:04

download this program http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html and copy all your cd-keys as a back up and then proceed as mentioned above, and then if you are prompted for a key at least you have one.

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Brumfondl

1084 posts

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# 1422529 6-Nov-2015 17:07

May I suggest waiting for a week or so (maybe a bit longer but hopefully not) till the November update officially comes out so you can get an ISO of that version. There have been problems with people doing clean installs and Windows deciding that you machine is not activated that is should solve. It also allows you to install using a W7 or 8/8.1 key instead of using a W10 one.