Word under the sea is that Win10 is letting you activate with win7 keys?

SpongeBob

The Contraceptive Under the Sea
Joined
Jan 15, 2011
Messages
938
So long story short I have a PC I was going to dismantle and use my win10 key for another build. Last weekend my server crapped out and I'm going to now utilize the rig I was going to dismantle. So I need a win10 key, I started looking at recent videos and people seem to be either able to activate windows after installing win 10, or they install win7 and run the win10 update and it works? Has anyone else been able to do this or are all of these youtube videos and articles bunk?

On a side note. So I upgraded my win7 to win10 when it first came out then reinstalled windows 10. I didn't want to dig through a box to look for my key so I ran a program to pull my Win10 key from it. I later went through the box and the win 10 key I pulled from windows is different than whats on my win 7 package? Is this normal seems odd. I only own legit purchased copies of windows.
 
You can also still run the update tool from a windows 7 or 8 machine and it will automagically activate like they were still doing the free upgrades.
 
Yeah, Microsoft doesn't really care if you pay for Windows 10. What they really want at this point is for you to subscribe to their cloud services. Upgrading to Windows 10 for free benefits them because then they can "strongly encourage" you to create a Microsoft account and subscribe to Office 365, OneDrive, Microsoft Teams, etc.
 
Yeah, Microsoft doesn't really care if you pay for Windows 10. What they really want at this point is for you to subscribe to their cloud services. Upgrading to Windows 10 for free benefits them because then they can "strongly encourage" you to create a Microsoft account and subscribe to Office 365, OneDrive, Microsoft Teams, etc.

I kinda figured this, subscriptions are where the money is but just in case I was wrong I really didn't want to go through a full install just to have to re-do it later or something.

I guess I'm still just confused why when I pulled my windows key it was different than my old one. You'd think at this point they should just offer win10 for free like you said it's all about getting people to use their other services.
 
I kinda figured this, subscriptions are where the money is but just in case I was wrong I really didn't want to go through a full install just to have to re-do it later or something.

I guess I'm still just confused why when I pulled my windows key it was different than my old one. You'd think at this point they should just offer win10 for free like you said it's all about getting people to use their other services.
Maybe when it upgrades from 7 to 10 it generates a new key for the 10 upgrade.
Also, if you have to reinstall Windows 10 on a machine that already had Windows 10 activated on it, you don't need to put a key in, just select I have no key during install and Windows should auto activate it since Microsoft has the hardware hash from the previous install.
 
Since Windows 10 came out, not had to buy a single OEM/Retail copy. I really don't know why they dont make it free for domestic/non enterprise folks or just a $10 charge for a new key.
 
funnily enough, i have a list of 15 win 7 keys. ive used them probably 100 times and they still activate win 10
 
funnily enough, i have a list of 15 win 7 keys. ive used them probably 100 times and they still activate win 10
if you use them during setup, a generic 10 key is generated and it activates off that. the only time youll lose/use up a 7 key is if you use it from within windows, after setup.
 
if you use them during setup, a generic 10 key is generated and it activates off that. the only time youll lose/use up a 7 key is if you use it from within windows, after setup.
right. I only use them to activate whole in windows. I don't think MS cares how's it's activated, as long as it pads their numbers. haha
 
right. I only use them to activate whole in windows. I don't think MS cares how's it's activated, as long as it pads their numbers. haha
Yes the telemetry data they collect from the users is valuable enough and of course they want to make sure Windows keeps its dominance so they can exploit the end users as they wish. It's sad that consumers don't understand they're getting shafted.
 
Well ain't this some shit. So I decided to keep my regular key with my server since it's been with that mobo for years. I figure I'll use my windows 7 Pro key, didn't work during install. I figure okay so enter the product key after installation when I'm connected to the internet. Nope! I get Your product key should be in an email from whoever sold or distributed windows to you. The product key you entered didn't work. Check the product key and try again, or enter a different one. (0xc004f050). What the hell?
 
Well ain't this some shit. So I decided to keep my regular key with my server since it's been with that mobo for years. I figure I'll use my windows 7 Pro key, didn't work during install. I figure okay so enter the product key after installation when I'm connected to the internet. Nope! I get Your product key should be in an email from whoever sold or distributed windows to you. The product key you entered didn't work. Check the product key and try again, or enter a different one. (0xc004f050). What the hell?
IIRC if you enter the key during install it gets void.
 
Well ain't this some shit. So I decided to keep my regular key with my server since it's been with that mobo for years. I figure I'll use my windows 7 Pro key, didn't work during install. I figure okay so enter the product key after installation when I'm connected to the internet. Nope! I get Your product key should be in an email from whoever sold or distributed windows to you. The product key you entered didn't work. Check the product key and try again, or enter a different one. (0xc004f050). What the hell?
I've seen weird things with certain OEM versions of Windows XP and 7 like this. They will only work on those specific OEM ISOs. If it was a retail copy, I don't see this happening unless MS blacklisted that specific key for some reason.
 
So let me tell you all about my experience with windows support. First of all the ph#'s they give will all tell you to go online they are useless. You need to go through chat then have them call you. Case numbers I had 4-6 of them all don't mean shit either. Every single time I spoke to someone we needed to start over. I even had a schedule call (which I never got) for them to give me a new key. Somehow the last guy I spoke to got my key to activate. So 3 hours later or more between yesterday night and today my win10 copy is activated. At one point they had me go from windows 10 home to pro. So because I'm nuts I noticed this in my partition, I didn't notice this on my server install from last week (different computer everything was 100% smooth). Which of these partitions should I get rid of? I believe one is created I think when you upgrade your windows versions. Is the 100MB Healthy EFI system parition supposed to be there or the 499MB Healthy Recovery Partition? I'm guessing it's the 499MB one. Can I get rid of the 499mb and get that space back? I don't want to create another headache.

1613417664935.png
 
So let me tell you all about my experience with windows support. First of all the ph#'s they give will all tell you to go online they are useless. You need to go through chat then have them call you. Case numbers I had 4-6 of them all don't mean shit either. Every single time I spoke to someone we needed to start over. I even had a schedule call (which I never got) for them to give me a new key. Somehow the last guy I spoke to got my key to activate. So 3 hours later or more between yesterday night and today my win10 copy is activated. At one point they had me go from windows 10 home to pro. So because I'm nuts I noticed this in my partition, I didn't notice this on my server install from last week (different computer everything was 100% smooth). Which of these partitions should I get rid of? I believe one is created I think when you upgrade your windows versions. Is the 100MB Healthy EFI system parition supposed to be there or the 499MB Healthy Recovery Partition? I'm guessing it's the 499MB one. Can I get rid of the 499mb and get that space back? I don't want to create another headache.

View attachment 329748

Those partitions are there by default on a fresh install and do not need to be deleted unless you really need that 600MB of space back.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...n-delete/2a65b908-57f5-4ece-94cf-535ebec739c0

https://www.partitionwizard.com/partitionmagic/delete-recovery-partition.html
 
I just did this back in December for a Dell Precision T1700 is there any easier way then installing Windows 7 then activating it using the SLIC certificate files *.xrm-ms and the OEM system integrator keys, then using the Windows 10 Upgrade tool?

This is what I did on that Dell Am I allowed to post the *.xrm-ms files? I don't know where you can even get them anymore I got them many year ago when Windows 7 & Vista were still in active support status

Code:
In case you don’t have version 2.1 you first need to get your BIOS updated. Now moving on to next step get OEM certificate from here . Select the one based on your OEM and move it to C:, next run the following commands after opening cmd as administrator

slmgr.vbs -ilc C:\DELL.xrm-ms

in case your OEM is DELL, next first download a set of OEM keys from here and select the one based on OS version and run the command

slmgr.vbs -ipk 6RBBT-F8VPQ-QCPVQ-KHRB8-RMV82

now check your activation status by entering

slmgr.vbs -dli

There has to be an easier way then installing Windows 7 then installing Windows 10 on top of it?
 
Use a Dell Windows 7 iso. Then you don't have to bother with the SLIC files. It just works.

If the system has a Windows 7 key on it, you can install Windows 10 using that key so you don't have to upgrade from 7 to 10.

Once you install Windows 10, you don't have to worry about going from 7 to 10 again on a clean install.
 
Use a Dell Windows 7 iso. Then you don't have to bother with the SLIC files. It just works.

If the system has a Windows 7 key on it, you can install Windows 10 using that key so you don't have to upgrade from 7 to 10.

Once you install Windows 10, you don't have to worry about going from 7 to 10 again on a clean install.

Don't have a Dell ISO the newest Dell one I have is Windows XP
Tried the key on the case did not work
This one I know about did this many times before I used my HDD for this to not wear my SSD out faster.
 
Don't have a Dell ISO the newest Dell one I have is Windows XP
Tried the key on the case did not work
This one I know about did this many times before I used my HDD for this to not wear my SSD out faster.
LOL you don't have to worry about SSD wear. They typically can take petabytes of writes before failure.
 
Is that backup 500mb backup of win10 home to revert to though like how win7 to win10 you could revert to?
 
Just remember, if you upgrade a valid OEM Windows 7/8 install to 10, it will void out that hardware GUID from being able to do that again in the future. Same goes with using a Windows 7/8 product key. It'll void out the key, and it attaches the license to the new 10 hardware GUID.
 
With that whole ordeal this key is now linked to a hotmail account. Can I still reinstall and activate windows like a regular not linked account? I kinda hate seeing my email name when I login to windows now. Not sure if I can change that I've never had a linked account before.
 
Yep, Win 7 sure does activate Win 10. I just downloaded the latest Win 10 install file from Microsoft and did a clean install , which activated just fine using a Win 7 key from an old laptop I have here that I no longer use.
 
With that whole ordeal this key is now linked to a hotmail account. Can I still reinstall and activate windows like a regular not linked account? I kinda hate seeing my email name when I login to windows now. Not sure if I can change that I've never had a linked account before.
If you used an OEM key of any type it’s tied to the hardware GUID. You can have a normal local account, and even remove your Microsoft online account.

The online account is only needed if you purchased a consumer retail copy of Windows 10. That activation limit is tied to the user account used to purchase Windows 10.
 
If you used an OEM key of any type it’s tied to the hardware GUID. You can have a normal local account, and even remove your Microsoft online account.

The online account is only needed if you purchased a consumer retail copy of Windows 10. That activation limit is tied to the user account used to purchase Windows 10.

I don't know what type of key my Dell has but it would not work for Windows 10 "Invalid Key" or something also remember to use a proper ISO or edit the EI.cfg I made several installations with the wrong ISO and ei.cfg it has to be OEM and not retail channel.

This is that Dell Precision T1700 I have I never seen a Windows 7 sticker like this one has usually blue and white never seen one with yellow before.
The slot-load drive was something I added it just had the blank filler plate but the plastic caddy was still there!
 

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