Hi, In 2020, I acquired a laptop with Windows 10 Home. I was able to upgrade to Windows 10 Pro using a Windows 7 Pro key. I jotted down the Windows 7 keys I had acquired, used them to upgrade to Windows 10 but forgot to match the keys with the computers. Today, I'd like to upgrade another computer the same way with a Windows 7 Pro key of mine no longer in use. But when I use softwares or commands in CMD I'm only able to find the Windows key in BIOS, or a Windows 10 Pro key that doesn't match with the windows 7 keys I have and cannot be used to activate windows 10 Pro. As I have some legit keys left, I'm not willing to use "cracks". I hope you can help Thanks
Just try all keys which you have, and check if any of them works. Note that the free Windows 10 upgrade program officially ended in 2023. zdnet.com/article/can-you-still-get-a-windows-10-upgrade-for-free-in-2025-short-answer-maybe/
Hi NewEraCracker, thanks for quick reply. I used all my Windows 7 pro keys to upgrade to Windows 10 pro successfully. If I understand rightly, today I can still upgrade a Windows 10 Home computer with any of my Windows 7 pro key I used before, provided that that key is not in use on another computer. By "trying", do you mean typing one of my Windows 7 pro key in Windows 10 Home, and check if Windows can be activated? If that so, I might use a Windows 7 Pro key still in use on another computer, and risk of losing activation on that computer. Am I correct? Sorry for the trouble
I will wait for an expert on Windows Activation to answer you on that. I think there are ways to back up the activation, and typically a product key can be reactivated after 90 days (to cover cases such as motherboard replacement). As I mentioned in my post above, I suspect Microsoft closed the loophole on September 20, 2023. My two cents.
It most likely has a MSDM key for home inside the bios, this tool should show you what key that is: https://forums.mydigitallife.net/posts/1283849 edit, i misread, i thought he wanted to see what the original key was to activate the original pre-installed windows 10 home. Just use MAS to generate a new HWID for the other computer.
If i remember when you used a win7/8.x key to convert/upgrade to win10 that key was 'subsumed' into the HWID and so that key was no longer valid. I had tested a w7 pro key i used to activate win 10 and when i tried to use it again on a win7 pc it failed every time. Im not sure you can recover the old win7 key from a upgraded win10 that used that w7 key.
To my knowledge, Windows 7 keys do not work anymore; you can still upgrade, but end up unlicensed. But as we have MAS' HwID and "teh forge" activations, I could care less.
Windows 10 Pro licenses are extremely cheap right now, like 30 bucks. If I didn't have a legit one, I would pick one up right now, before they become harder to find later on.
Hi, thanks to you all for your replies. As most of you have suggested, my best alternative is to use Massgrave either Tsforge or Hwid. Have a nice day