Activating Win10 1511 with Win7/8 key after installing with default key?

Discussion in 'Windows 10' started by cheezels, Nov 25, 2015.

  1. cheezels

    cheezels MDL Junior Member

    Jan 17, 2015
    55
    4
    0
    Hey guys, got a somewhat unique situation and I'm wondering if anyone has had success with this.

    In a nutshell, I have a base image for a few work PCs that I have here, which have a bunch of tweaks and preloaded software. This base image has the Win10 Home KMS key installed, which prior to the TH2 10586 update, I would use the GenuineTicket.xml method and the retail upgrade key. This has worked fine, and still works fine.

    Saying that, I have a few machines here that have issues (bad disks, won't boot etc) and I'd like to be able restore this Win10 image and activate it using the attached Win7 key without installing Win7 first and running the gatherosstate.exe to get my GenuineTicket.xml file. I understand that as of TH2, it will accept (and I presume, convert) Win7/8 keys during the setup wizard, but not after the fact. Running changepk.exe to change my product key after Windows 10 has been installed will return an error saying that this licence is not valid to activate my version of Windows 10

    If anyone can shed some light on this, let me know.
     
  2. Bezalel

    Bezalel MDL Member

    Apr 30, 2012
    245
    28
    10
    Why overcomplicate things? Just use the default key, at most you'll have to generate 1 ticket per PC and you'll have a digital entitlement.

    AFAIK you can change the product key offline using DISM.
     
  3. cheezels

    cheezels MDL Junior Member

    Jan 17, 2015
    55
    4
    0
    I'm not quite sure you understood what I'm trying to do... I want to avoid having to install Windows 7. I have a PC with Windows 7 licence and Windows 10 Image. I want to load the image, change key from default and directly activate Windows 10 with the Windows 7 key. Is there a way around this? I'm not using Sysprep at the moment but I suppose I could make that happen if that was necessary.
     
  4. GethDeeo

    GethDeeo MDL Novice

    Jul 24, 2009
    25
    6
    0
    I don't know whether or not this info helps you out, but I recently installed W10 1511 clean with generic retail key. After the OS was up, I entered a previously unused W8 key and it activated without problem.
    You mentioned KMS key, but what channel the W7 key was? Maybe you should switch channel (slmgr) before trying to enter that old key on the UI.
     
  5. cheezels

    cheezels MDL Junior Member

    Jan 17, 2015
    55
    4
    0
    Fair point. I had Win10 Home trying to install with an OEM Win7 Home Premium key. I also tried with an OEM Win7 Professional key but I probably had to upgrade first before that would work. I'll have a play around. The default key I used is actually the default retail key, not KMS, sorry.
     
  6. cheezels

    cheezels MDL Junior Member

    Jan 17, 2015
    55
    4
    0
    Update: No problems activating Windows 10 with Windows 7 or 8 keys now. I just had to ensure that I was on the right retail upgrade channel before adding the product key. It essentially builds a digital entitlement on the spot.
     
  7. sezz

    sezz MDL Novice

    Apr 20, 2009
    24
    1
    0
    #7 sezz, Jan 12, 2016
    Last edited: Jan 12, 2016
    What exactly do you mean with "ensure to be on the right upgrade channel"?

    I cannot activate W10 1511 (installed with default generic key H8Q99) by entering the W8.1 key that is in the MSDM table (Win 8.1 RTM Core OEM:DM). I'm getting error 0xc004f210
     
  8. endbase

    endbase MDL Guru

    Aug 12, 2012
    4,667
    1,708
    150
    I thought I have read somewhere here that oem keys are not accepted but I could be wrong
     
    Stop hovering to collapse... Click to collapse... Hover to expand... Click to expand...
  9. sezz

    sezz MDL Novice

    Apr 20, 2009
    24
    1
    0
    could be the reason why it never worked, i only have a lot of oem keys

    activated now using 8HVX7 (activation was gone after cloning from hdd to ssd, that's why i tried to activate using the 8.1 key)
     
  10. Gharlane00

    Gharlane00 MDL Addicted

    Aug 26, 2009
    836
    296
    30
    OEM keys only work through the full upgrade path
     
  11. lobo11

    lobo11 TOMAHAWK CHOP

    Feb 16, 2012
    6,585
    5,362
    210
    Stop hovering to collapse... Click to collapse... Hover to expand... Click to expand...