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About that Windows 10 hardware hash...

F

fleggett

Gawd
Joined
Nov 30, 2004
Messages
546
When, exactly, is that hardware hash that Windows 10 uses for activation generated and uploaded to Microsoft's servers? I'm just wondering if it's necessary to go through the download and install procedure or if the hash is created and uploaded when the ready notification is presented to the user. If it's the latter, that would save a tremendous amount of time for those wishing to do clean installs.
 
fleggett said:
When, exactly, is that hardware hash that Windows 10 uses for activation generated and uploaded to Microsoft's servers? I'm just wondering if it's necessary to go through the download and install procedure or if the hash is created and uploaded when the ready notification is presented to the user. If it's the latter, that would save a tremendous amount of time for those wishing to do clean installs.
Click to expand...
It's been stated numerous times that you need to go through the upgrade process first before you can clean install. That means it is generated and uploaded during the Windows 10 installation/activation process.
 
I've installed and clean installed then upgraded my motherboard and still had an activated windows 10 pro x64. Can anyone test to see if that's a fluke or if it works for others as well?
 
But has that been confirmed? I would seem (to me, at least) to be more efficient to go ahead and generate the hash and perform the upload once the 10 request has been made. It would be an extremely trivial operation, consuming almost no bandwidth, and bypass the whole "gotta install 10 first" rigmarole.


I've got another laptop that I'll be converting soon to 10 (from 8.1). I might try a clean install just after receiving the "10 is ready to download" prompt just for S&Gs. If it doesn't work, oh well, but if it does...
 
Rebeldawg said:
I've installed and clean installed then upgraded my motherboard and still had an activated windows 10 pro x64. Can anyone test to see if that's a fluke or if it works for others as well?
Click to expand...
Huh, that's new. Maybe Microsoft has applied a shadow grace period to get as many people on 10 as possible. I don't know if I'd try that again, though.
(Did you replace the motherboard outright?)
 
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BTW, has anyone else had any problems with the editor on here triple-spacing between paragraphs?
 
If you took advantage of the free upgrade offer reservation process (the "Get Windows 10" thing that put the icon in the System Tray a few weeks/months back) that was actually an activation client that generated the hash at that point in time on legit activated installations of Windows 7, 8, and 8.1. If you didn't take advantage of the reservation process then the hash was generated during the upgrade process (if you've gone through that since the July 29th official release).

As for spacing issues with the posting editor, it happens sometimes in some browsers depending on script controls, at least in my experience. Sometimes shit just doesn't work. :)
 
I couldn't get it to activate with a clean install on my laptop, but going to settings->update & security->recovery->reset this pc, and having it do a clean install from there worked (it used the same key too so I don't know why it wouldn't work from the USB clean install).
 
prime2515102 said:
I couldn't get it to activate with a clean install on my laptop, but going to settings->update & security->recovery->reset this pc, and having it do a clean install from there worked (it used the same key too so I don't know why it wouldn't work from the USB clean install).
Click to expand...

You have to do an upgrade first and then verify it's activated and everything is ok before you can clean install Windows 10. A lot of people are getting the ISO from wherever (not a good idea, seriously, but people are stupid far more often than not) and attempting to do straight clean installs and it won't work - it must be installed as an upgrade first before any actual proper clean installs are enabled.
 
Tiberian said:
You have to do an upgrade first and then verify it's activated and everything is ok before you can clean install Windows 10. A lot of people are getting the ISO from wherever (not a good idea, seriously, but people are stupid far more often than not) and attempting to do straight clean installs and it won't work - it must be installed as an upgrade first before any actual proper clean installs are enabled.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I did that. I was activated after the upgrade, then I wiped the drive and did the clean install from the USB drive and skipped entering the key and all that. No idea what the problem is/was. MS said give it 24-48 hours but it had been installed for a week and still didn't activate (I left it on 24/7 too).

Maybe my Thinkpad is a bootleg and the Win7 key isn't legit. lol
 
fleggett said:
Huh, that's new. Maybe Microsoft has applied a shadow grace period to get as many people on 10 as possible. I don't know if I'd try that again, though.
(Did you replace the motherboard outright?)
Click to expand...

Yes, I went from an asus p8h67-m evo to a biostar tz77mxe motherboard and windows 10 pro x64 stayed activated after upgrading from windows 7 ultimate x64 previously on the asus motherboard. I then did a fresh install of windows 10 and had no problems activating it without reinstalling windows 7 ultimate first.
 
fleggett said:
But has that been confirmed?
Click to expand...
What do you mean has it been confirmed? It's been confirmed because that's how it works. If you didn't have to go through the upgrade process in order to clean install that why would they tell you that's what you have to do? Microsoft is not going to activate your PC as Windows 10 before you actually update it.

http://www.winbeta.org/news/gabriel-aul-confirms-clean-reinstall-windows-10-possible-free-upgrade

Straight from the horses mouth.
 
Rebeldawg said:
Yes, I went from an asus p8h67-m evo to a biostar tz77mxe motherboard and windows 10 pro x64 stayed activated after upgrading from windows 7 ultimate x64 previously on the asus motherboard. I then did a fresh install of windows 10 and had no problems activating it without reinstalling windows 7 ultimate first.
Click to expand...

Didn't work for people in this thread and they had to install qualifying OS and Win10 upgrade again to generate new hardware hash.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1872099

One guy just updated the mb bios and lost his activation.
 
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