Windows 7 to WIndows 10 Questions

M

mrkma

Weaksauce
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May 28, 2014
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I am not sure if this has been discussed, but I could not find it anywhere.
If I upgrade my copy of windows 7 to windows 10, does the cdkey for windows 7 become invalid? I wanted to know if I still have the option to use W7 later?
 
From a licensing perspective, let's say you have an OEM copy of Windows 7. You upgrade to Windows 10, which is then licensed via your original Win 7 OEM license. If you decided you want to move back to Win 7 on that machine, your same key will reactivate Windows 7.

If you have a retail key, the same scenario applies but you can move your Win 7 license to any other PC.

So the short answer is: no.
 
When you take advantage of the free upgrade to Windows 10 offer from Microsoft you have 30 days to check it out and then if you decide it's not right for you or you have some hardware issue that can't be resolved with Windows 10 you're entitled to downgrade or roll back to the previous OS. The Windows 7 license in such a situation is upgraded to the Windows 10 license meaning it's basically rendered moot from that point on unless you take advantage of the right to downgrade.

If you upgrade Windows 7 to Windows 10, after 30 days the Windows 7 license effectively becomes invalid for the future, even on the same hardware.

As Oldie pointed out, if it's an OEM machine - desktop, tablet, laptop, whatever - things are a bit different and you may have rights to downgraded to the previous product for a longer period of time.

The point of all this is that you're only supposed to be using or licensed to use one of the operating systems at a time (and I don't mean running simultaneously) - there are a lot of people that will of course do this anyway by taking advantage of the upgrade to Windows 10 then reinstalling the qualifying product as well as Windows 10 which can then be clean installed for a dual boot.
 
Tiberian said:
When you take advantage of the free upgrade to Windows 10 offer from Microsoft you have 30 days to check it out and then if you decide it's not right for you or you have some hardware issue that can't be resolved with Windows 10 you're entitled to downgrade or roll back to the previous OS. The Windows 7 license in such a situation is upgraded to the Windows 10 license meaning it's basically rendered moot from that point on unless you take advantage of the right to downgrade.

If you upgrade Windows 7 to Windows 10, after 30 days the Windows 7 license effectively becomes invalid for the future, even on the same hardware.

As Oldie pointed out, if it's an OEM machine - desktop, tablet, laptop, whatever - things are a bit different and you may have rights to downgraded to the previous product for a longer period of time.

The point of all this is that you're only supposed to be using or licensed to use one of the operating systems at a time (and I don't mean running simultaneously) - there are a lot of people that will of course do this anyway by taking advantage of the upgrade to Windows 10 then reinstalling the qualifying product as well as Windows 10 which can then be clean installed for a dual boot.
Click to expand...

Even though you're technically correct, all Windows desktop licenses have downgrade rights, including OEM. So even if your Windows 7 license is invalid, you still have downgrade rights from the Windows 10 license to run 7....and your key will still work just fine, though you may have to do a phone activation.

http://www.microsoft.com/oem/en/licensing/sblicensing/pages/downgrade_rights.aspx#fbid=l66Ec5rG1AA
 
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