Win 7-10 pro retail upgrade?

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matt167

[H]ard|Gawd
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I have a copy of Win 7 Pro, full complete install with an open license. Since I run Dell's now and have Dell install discs it has not been needed.. My T3500 I really have no intention of upgrading right now but eventually I may have to.

Can I install Win 10 on a spare computer and use that license key to make it a retail version of Win 10 pro? I want to take advantage of the loophole while I can
 
This is a few days old, but I can still answer I suppose.

matt167 said:
Since I run Dell's now and have Dell install discs it has not been needed
Click to expand...

Your installed edition of Windows isn't your Win 7 Pro open license, if you've used the Dell disks you're running Win 7 Pro OEM. If it didn't ask for a key, then your system is already licensed by the OEM. You're essentially not using your Win 7 Pro open license.

You should be able to install your Win 7 Pro on whatever system you want and upgrade it to Win 10. Now, I don't know if the Win 10 free upgrade promo is still going, but when it was it tied the free Win 10 license you got to the hardware ID of the system where you were doing the upgrade. You never got a key, you instead registered your hardware ID with Microsoft and from that point you could reinstall to your heart's content and the system would automatically activate Win10 with Microsoft via that hardware ID. So installing it on a spare would only get you Win10 on the spare, not on your T3500.
 
I see, so I need to put in a spare hard drive, and then install 10 to register the hardware.. I knew that my retail version of Win 7 pro isn't in use. I have not had it installed on a computer in 3 years give or take. I was just hoping that I could convert that license into a retail Win 10 license.
 
Just be aware, the disk drive is part of the hardware ID.

I believe there is some way to get some kind of a key out of the system, so that you could reinstall to a different disk and then call Microsoft to authorize the changed hardware, but it's not something I've gone through.
 
matt167 said:
I have a copy of Win 7 Pro, full complete install with an open license. Since I run Dell's now and have Dell install discs it has not been needed.. My T3500 I really have no intention of upgrading right now but eventually I may have to.

Can I install Win 10 on a spare computer and use that license key to make it a retail version of Win 10 pro? I want to take advantage of the loophole while I can
Click to expand...

Throw a spare hard drive in that computer, install the Windows 10 upgrade on it and activate it using the USB drive created from the Media Creation tool. Put the old drive back in and gone on about your day, easy peasy.
 
The hard drive is obviously not a factor in activation - otherwise people would have always trouble when upgrading the storage.
 
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