Activating Windows 10 on New Build

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Aaron2222

216 posts

Master Geek

#240205 26-Aug-2018 16:01

Asking for a friend who's just built a new computer. They had Windows 10 on their old computer (was a retail Windows 8 upgraded to Windows 10 through Microsoft's free upgrade offer) and wants to transfer their license to their new computer. They've installed Windows 10 on the new computer without a product key for now. They've always used a local account, so can't use the activation troubleshooter. And when they rang Microsoft, the call quality was bad enough that it was hard to get the the Windows 8 product key across to the call center worker, and once they had gotten the key across, the call center worker just said that the key was invalid. Any ideas on how to go about this?

bigalow

566 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2079412 26-Aug-2018 16:47

the free windows 10 upgrade was non transferable

maybe they should try install win 8 first and activate that then upgrade to windows 10 ??

Brumfondl

1187 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#2079417 26-Aug-2018 17:03

Have they tried just putting in the Windows 8 key? Might have needed to do it while installing Windows.

Delphinus

611 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2079434 26-Aug-2018 18:17

Just use a microsoft account on both PC's. If you login with a MS account on the old PC, then the new one, it should transfer the licence.

mattwnz

20141 posts

Uber Geek

#2079436 26-Aug-2018 18:19

Can you install and activate windows 8 on it? I think that would be the starting point, as I don't think the win 10 upgrade as transferable, as I think it is tied to the computers hardware. It maybe worth buying a copy of windows 10 OEM if they want to use that. Window 8 though isn't that bad as I use it on my laptop, and it is only the operating system.

richms

28168 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2079437 26-Aug-2018 18:24

Ive just moved the drive between a few failed systems to new ones recently. One was an SSD out of an antique ex lease core 2 quad machine that died, which was installed with some form of windows 7 key (not sure it was the one stuck to the case) moved it to a new 8th gen i3 board and it just booted up and worked fine with no request for a key at all.

The second was an old AMD athlon XP machine that had 7 put on it from the key that came with a waterdamged PC I got ages back - prior to that it was an XP machine. It was moved to another 8th gen i3 machine, and it took about 3 reboot and crash cycles before windows sorted itself out but it also came right and briefly had the message in the corner about not being activated but that went away on its own once I got it on the network.

Previously with 7 and 8 I have had to go thru calls to microsoft with long annoying numbers to give them and get back for way less in the way of HDD changes - my 8 laptop demanded that for just swapping out the wifi card and the crappy HDD for a SSD. I think they really dont care about it like they used to.

Richard rich.ms

sparkz25

750 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user

#2079467 26-Aug-2018 20:27

i had a similar issue, the problem that i has was i upgraded my main board and then it spat the dummy with the windows activation, i did the free upgrade from windows 7 to 10 and it wouldnt take the old windows 7 key, so called the support number and kept at them and they finally gave me a new key for windows 10 pro, so you could try that, they do get you to faf around abit and do a few things, but problem was fixed with a new key

i have done a few installs where it has asked me for the key in the beginning and put a old windows 7 or 8 key in and its never been a problem

antoniosk

2358 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2079476 26-Aug-2018 20:51

So what is Microsoft's policy here?

If you had a legit transferable Windows 7 license, wouldn't upgrading to 10 protect the transfer right? I can understand if the original license is OEM.

I'm just thinking of the common situation where motherboards fail and you have to start all over again replacing parts, but ostensibly removing the old machine so the net license is still 0.

________

Antoniosk

Equinox IT

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1101

3122 posts

Uber Geek

#2079540 27-Aug-2018 09:53

sparkz25:

i have done a few installs where it has asked me for the key in the beginning and put a old windows 7 or 8 key in and its never been a problem

Ive been doing that for a while, never been an issue . MS still wants everyone to upgrade . But its allways been on the same PC.

Was it really retail, or OEM sold with the PC ? have you seen the lic key/COA sticker ?
How many times has that install key been used ? MS will flag keys that are used too many times
MS can also flag a key if used on differnent hardware : that wasnt a big issue with 7, not sure about 10 though.

Install8, upgrade to 8.1, upgrade to 10 (off a 10 install disk downloaded from MS)

pretty sure 8 didnt get the free upgrade, needed to be 8.1

Oblivian

7296 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

#2079564 27-Aug-2018 10:27

Seems there are some quirks over the core version you had. Be it retail or OEM. OEM still goes with the OEM licence, it CAN'T be transferred.

I was looking into methods to ensure I had a licence for reinstall if the 'backup to MS account' option didn't work. Seems there are some scripts - likely similar to jellybean to let you see the W10 version https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/How-to-backup-Windows-85379640

And going by this

https://www.groovypost.com/howto/transfer-windows-10-license-new-pc/

You can kill your install with slmgr if not careful :D

Aaron2222

216 posts

Master Geek

#2082773 2-Sep-2018 14:45

Brumfondl:

Have they tried just putting in the Windows 8 key? Might have needed to do it while installing Windows.

I had thought about trying that but they were a bit concerned about it causing problems (which I thought was unlikely, either it activates with the Win 8 key or it rejects it). Anyway, convinced them to try that and it worked fine, they were able to add the product key through Settings and it just activated, no problems at all.

stinger

628 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user

#2082790 2-Sep-2018 15:49

Aaron2222:

Any ideas on how to go about this?

The easier option maybe to buy a new product key. There are plenty of sellers on eBay that are selling them for a couple of dollars. They say it is legal, and I've used a one for a VM I am running without issues.

Inphinity

2780 posts

Uber Geek

#2082992 3-Sep-2018 08:21

Have had issues with this also recently, but no luck on an answer yet. Had to replace a faulty graphics card in a PC that was upgraded from Win 7 Home to Win 10 Home back when the free upgrade offer was around, and has been fine, but after swapping the graphics card it says it's not activated, and can't activate as the previous windows version never was. I haven' tried swapping the old card back in yet to see if it goes away etc. The original Win 7 Home was a 'family pack' retail version, and putting the key for that in now doesn't help. Guess I'll be on the phone to MS lol.

cruxis

480 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2083002 3-Sep-2018 08:45

I have taken a couple photos of win 7 keys from machines heading to landfill, None failed when used to install a win10 on a new machine.