What happens to a license of Windows 8.1 / 7 after you use it for the free Windows 10 upgrade?

[Jordan]

Can you use license of Windows 8.1 / 7 after you use it for the free Windows 10?

What happens to a license of Windows 8.1 / 7 after you use it for the free Windows 10 upgrade?

When you use the Windows 8.1 or Windows 7 license to upgrade your computer free to Windows 10, you get all the rights of the original license.

If you upgrade a OEM license then you get OEM rights in Windows 10 too.

If you upgrade using a Retail license, you get the full Retail license rights.

But you now cannot use the same license to install Windows 7 or Windows 8.1,

either on a different computer or as a dual boot system on the same computer.

Source: http://forum.thewindowsclub.com/windows-tips-tutorials-articles/37299-can-you-use-license-windows-8-1-7-after-you-use-free-windows-10-a.html#post173794

[Kalju]

Can you use license of Windows 8.1 / 7 after you use it for the free Windows 10?

What happens to a license of Windows 8.1 / 7 after you use it for the free Windows 10 upgrade?

When you use the Windows 8.1 or Windows 7 license to upgrade your computer free to Windows 10, you get all the rights of the original license.

If you upgrade a OEM license then you get OEM rights in Windows 10 too.

If you upgrade using a Retail license, you get the full Retail license rights.

But you now cannot use the same license to install Windows 7 or Windows 8.1,

either on a different computer or as a dual boot system on the same computer.

Source: http://forum.thewindowsclub.com/windows-tips-tutorials-articles/37299-can-you-use-license-windows-8-1-7-after-you-use-free-windows-10-a.html#post173794

Will the story get the sequel in near future? The story seems somehow like weird.

I would like to know, which is the punch line? How does the story end?

Will there be a happy ending, or something strange is coming ...?

[Jordan]

What i would to know is the backed up licenses of Win 8.1/7 by Tokens Manager or other programs are still valide or not?

Microsoft have no right to do that! Maybe yes for non-genuine activations, but what about paid licences?!

[alaindc]

So, since english isn't my main language, do i understand correctly?

If you upgrade to Win 10...

you can't use the Win 7/8 licence you have on a second pc, or can't dual boot with it.

BUT...

You can reinstall win 7/8 if you don't use Win 10 anymore?

maybe?

So, free upgrade, but you lose your licence doing it.

NOT FREE.

Same thing as a trade.

[jango]

so far backup license & restore is working for me in Windows 7. Using this setup.

[TheRuan]

So, since english isn't my main language, do i understand correctly?

If you upgrade to Win 10...

you can't use the Win 7/8 licence you have on a second pc, or can't dual boot with it.

BUT...

You can reinstall win 7/8 if you don't use Win 10 anymore?

maybe?

So, free upgrade, but you lose your licence doing it.

NOT FREE.

Same thing as a trade.

What does upgrade mean in the first place? u get something old >>>CHANGED<<< INTO SOMETHING NEW.

U don't get something old stored somewhere else and get another thing.

So yeah, the free upgrade is a free upgrade, not sure why the hell people are complaining, if u get the right to use the new system without paying any additional money, what's wrong with u guys ...

[steven36]

I know you got 30 days to try windows 10 out and you can just hit refresh go back windows 7 because i done it on one PC .

I have and OEM image of Windows 8 on my PC were I can revert back anytime I please . People should have thought about a backup plan before they installed it . After all they give a 30 day test run . :P

[Holmes]

The eula specifically states once you upgrade to the new windows ten using windows seven or eight valid license you get valid windows ten for free (you have thirty days to try windows ten) and your old windows seven eight license is invalid if you decide to uninstall windows ten and go back to windows seven or eight you get your windows seven eight license back and your windows ten license is invalid. Your question is do you get to keep seven or eight if you upgrade to ten the answer is no you dont you get ten and lose seven or eight if you change your mind and install seven or eight again you lose ten and get seven and eight again. It doesnt matter if you somehow backed up your old license you can try to activate it your going to end up with pirated license.

[steven36]

THe eula specifically states once you upgrade to the new windows ten using windows seven or eight valid license you get valid windows ten for free and your old windows seven eight license is invalid if you decide to uninstall windows ten and go back to windows seven or eight you get your windows seven eight license back and your windows ten license is invalid. Your question is do you get to keep seven or eight if you upgrade to ten no yuou dont you get ten and lose seven or eight if you change your mind and install seven or eight again you lose ten and get seven and eight again.

You really never lose windows 10. As long as you reinstall it before the year is up. But they want give a windows 10 key unless you have proof of buying windows 7 or 8 .

I originally had Windows 8.1 Pro installed on a machine. This was upgraded to Windows 10 Pro a while ago.

Unfortunately last night my OS SSD died and I've just installed a new one and installed Windows 10.

According to this Microsoft Article I need no Product Key as Windows will automatically activate online.

I have linked the new Windows 10 installation to the same Microsoft account but I'm still unable to get Windows to activate.

I had written down the product key as shown to me by the previous Windows 10 installation but that starts with two 0s which you can't even type into the product key box as it reports as an invalid character.

Has anyone else gone through this process and successfully activated Windows 10?

I'm worried if the change in hardware is the issue ... surely this is a very common scenario for the need to reinstall Windows?

___

Seems there is a lot of varying stories on this. I just got off the phone with Microsoft and I've been told to reinstall Windows 8, activate that, then upgrade to 8.1 then upgrade that to Windows 10. Talk about convoluted and obtuse.

-----

So after a number of calls with Microsoft with varying success of actually completing a call without being cut off. I was given the following workaround:

• Install Windows 8 Pro
• Activate
• Apply all 8 updates (153)
• Upgrade to 8.1 Pro
• Apple all 8.1 updates (31)
• Run media creation tool to update to Windows 10
• Apply all Windows 10 updates

Yup, install all 3 OSs. Kinda cheaper to just buy a license if this was on work time

http://superuser.com/questions/975172/windows-10-reinstall-activation

in other words if you ever need to do some hardware upgrade after next summer you be stuck on you're old O/S anyways. :o But really I can update to windows 8.1 with just 3 updates :P

[Holmes]

After the year is up you do lose your free windows ten upgrade and I read about the hardware change. You can upgrade to windows eight point one with three updates and you are going to get a pirated license it wont be genuine.

[steven36]

After the year is up you do lose your free windows ten upgrade and I read about the hardware change. You can upgrade to windows eight point one with three updates and you are going to get a pirated license it wont be genuine.

No It only requires 3 offline updates to upgrade to windows 8.1 thorough the store My corrupter is OEM it never needed activated to use Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 or windows 10 it already is activated. You get OEM rights no matter what version you use.

[thunderpants]

I have a new computer that came with Win 8.1 .

I was thinking of installing win7 x64 .

I use it for gaming mostly and browsing the net of course :)

Anyone have any experience with win 8.1 ?

I play a lot of games from old ones to new ones.

Win 7 x64 on my older computer seems pretty good ,though i did try try one of the earlier versions of win 10 and it did seem to be very good with some of the newer "power intensive" games i ran on it .

[banned]

As I understood it, you can still roll back to Windows 7 or 8.1 if you don't want Windows 10 after 30 days, it will just require a clean install.

Once your system has been upgraded to 10, its hardware ID is registered for the lifetime of the device. You can reinstall it after the free year is up and it should still activate.

[steven36]

As I understood it, you can still roll back to Windows 7 or 8.1 if you don't want Windows 10 after 30 days, it will just require a clean install.

Once your system has been upgraded to 10, its hardware ID is registered for the lifetime of the device. You can reinstall it after the free year is up and it should still activate.

I think it will auto activate as long as you never change HHD or the motherboard . If you change ether you lose activation and will need to figure out a different way after the year is up , But yes activation is tied into your HWID but dont never mess with you're SID . :P

Its like You trade you're retail key in for a OEM key when you activate windows 10 for free.