Win 8 to 10

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Sparky

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I have a Win 8 Pro license that I never used. Can I install it then upgrade straight to Win 10 or do I have to install Win 8.1 first?
I know once Win 10 get installed I can wipe the drive and do a clean install but I need to do the upgrade first right?
I want a UEFI Win 10 install. Does Win 8/8.1 need to be UEFI too?
 
Start with 8 if you have that already. then upgrade to 10 and make sure it's activated. Then you can format, switch to UEFI, and install 10 clean. It will activate 10 by reusing your license key or you can hit the "I don't have a license key" option during the install. It will activate once you get online.

Or you can just install 10 on a clean PC and use your 8 key during the install. You will need to make new media using the MS media creation tool for this.

I went from non-UEFI to UEFI with no issue doing this.
 
I had a similar problem with a rig of mine. I had a Windows 8 key. I had to install windows 8, then upgrade to 10.

Recentally I think I remember reading that has been changed. I believe you can activate a Windows 10 install with a Windows 8 key. You just have to activate it manually and put in that key later when the pc is completely installed.

To get UEFI, just make sure to boot the CD or USB drive as UEFI. Make your HDD GPT too while you're at it. :)
 
Sparky said:
Are there tons of windows updates that need to be downloaded before you can upgrade to 10 or can I stick the 10 in after I boot to 8?
Click to expand...

Go use the media creation tool to make new Win 10 media on a thumb drive and just upgrade with that. Then you can use that for the upgrade or to do a clean install. You are thinking this is more complicated than it is :

Side note: Installing from a thumb drive is wwwaaayyy faster than using a DVD.
 
I have it on a USB 3.0 thumb made with rufus uefi gpt.
The media creation tool did not list Win 10 Pro. Just Win 10, Win 10 N and single user home
 
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Sparky said:
I have it on a USB 3.0 thumb made with rufus uefi gpt.
The media creation tool did not list Win 10 Pro. Just Win 10, Win 10 N and single user home
Click to expand...

The Windows 10 option will activate as Pro if you have a Pro key.
 
My rufus created usb 128gb drive is not showing up as UEFI in the bios. Not sure if I have the bios settings correct. I am using an Asrock x99 board.
 
Sparky said:
My rufus created usb 128gb drive is not showing up as UEFI in the bios. Not sure if I have the bios settings correct. I am using an Asrock x99 board.
Click to expand...

Just use the MS tool? :(

I don't have an Asus board, however when I boot from a USB drive I can boot the drive as UEFI or not. Maybe you just need to enable something in your BIOs.
 
Got it installed. Computer Management shows a EFI System Partition. From the pics I have seen shouldnt there be 4 partitions? I have 3.
How do I tell if its GPT?
 
If you just blow away everything on the drive and let Windows 10 setup create the partitions after you booted the setup in UEFI mode, you end up with four partitions (Windows will display three of these) and the drive will be GPT.

To see if your drive is GPT:
Go to Computer Management, and select Disk Management
Right-click on Disk 0 and select Properties.
Select the Volumes tab.
The Partition style: entry will show as either Master Boot Record (MBR) or GUID Partition Table (GPT).
Click to expand...
 
^^ Disk 0 not always the boot drive so just be sure to check the correct drive.
 
Ocellaris said:
If you just blow away everything on the drive and let Windows 10 setup create the partitions after you booted the setup in UEFI mode, you end up with four partitions (Windows will display three of these) and the drive will be GPT.

To see if your drive is GPT:
Click to expand...


Woohoo! GUID!
Yes I deleted all partitions and clicked next.

My Win 8 Pro key wouldnt activate. Had to call in. 3 techs later he remoted in and got it working and gave me a new Win 10 Pro key. I am not sure if he couldnt figure out why my key was not working or gave up and gave me a new key. I still have the email receipt for Win 8 Pro that I showed him. Only took 3 years from that Hot Deals $14.99 buy to actually use it.
Thanks for the help mates.
Ultra fast boot here I come!
 
Sparky, you mentioned that Win 8 Pro key was one of the $15 keys from way back when they offered them when it came out. I think I know why your Win 8 key didn't work: Those keys (maybe a first batch?) wouldn't work for me either (I had several keys from that deal) when I tried them on Windows 8.1 or one of the latest builds of it. There was a news mention somewhere about those old old old initial keys not playing nice. I would suspect you were having that same issue with the key. Glad you got it working!
 
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That would explain it. The tech said the key was coming up invalid. I showed him the email receipt with the key listed. He ran sfc /scannow check and DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth. When those passed he said here is your key and pasted it in a txt file.
 
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