Now that July 29th has come and gone, I want to erase my Insider disk and do a clean install. Has anybody tried this yet and was the new, clean install activated?
I tried yesterday, the clean install doesn't work yet. If you've got an already activated system consider yourself lucky. I've been locked out of a clean install for a couple weeks already because 10162 wouldn't activate (bug in that version) and MS shut down the activation servers as soon as I upgraded to 10240.
I tried this and yes, the clean install activated. I have a VM which was created new, then I installed build 10162. I activated it. Later I updated to insider build 10240. It was activated and remained so until now. After 29 July, I even opted out of insider builds and it remained activated. I then did a complete clean install of Windows 10 release ISO and it is activated. The VM never had any other genuine version of Windows installed. Looks like I got Windows 10 for free in there now.
i did already several clean installs from the day i received 10240 insider untill now i installed the insider preview the wzor version and also the official rtm. On virtual machines and on real computers and all were activated. I opted out of insider builds after receiving 10240 insider the same day
Either you guys are all lucky, or I'm really unlucky. I used every insider build up to 10162, and all activated except 10162 due to a bug that I hit that you guys didn't. By the time I updated to 10240, MS had already blocked further insider activations and I've been blocked ever since. It's been about 3 weeks since I've been able to use Windows 10.
I had the same bug too, but I called in to M$ and had my build 10162 activated over the phone. I'm sure it's way too late for that now
I've done several (around 6) clean installs without any issues. You can do a clean installs provided: a) Your 1st install is an in-place upgrade of an activated copy of Win 7/8.1, and the Win10 copy auto activates b) No major hardware changes after Windows 10 activation
Can someone let me know what the insider build looks like compared to the final version. I downloaded and installed Faikee's ISO image a few days ago, it activated fine without any problems since I had upgraded from windows 8.1 pro, but when I go to update settings I do see GET INSIDERS BUILDS and in update history I see an option to remove preview build not sure if you see that in the final version or not. I did download the ISO image of windows 10 pro from media creation tool yesterday but not sure if I should go ahead and try doing a clean install of it, I dont want to lose my activation
This thread is not about that, it's about retaining permanent activation through previously activated insider preview builds, even in the absence of underlying Win 7/8.1.
Doesn't make a hill of beans really. I will be running Windows 10 on the machines I'm legally allowed to. If activation fails for some reason there are other methods (KMS, MAK) available. As long as you have the "paper trail" proving you have a validly licensed Windows 7 or later - which in this case is as simple as a Win7 preinstall sticker or a machine with 8.x key burned in the ROM, there's no reason to care what method was used to install or activate it.
The activation method matters to some people. I don't want to use KMS or Daz or some other method and have my MSA tied to an illegitimately licensed copy of Windows 10. I'd like to run it in a VM, which is fine since I'm part of the Insider program. Due to a bug I've been locked out for over 3 weeks now and will continue to be locked out until MS decides to open the program up to Insider activations again.
if people who aren't insiders and were never insiders can do it why wouldn't insiders be able to do it? I think I am missing something here.
microsoft have said,insiders that didn't have a genuine qualifying os underneath and who opt out will loose activation,
I just finished a clean install on one of my crappy old laptops, it had 64bit win 10 pro on it after updating it using wzor from 7 ultimate daz loader, I decided the thing is best with 32bit so I wiped it and installed 32bit, activated instantly.
Indeed that's what they said, and that should be the case in principle, makes sense. However, the reality seems to be that anyone who successfully activated an insider preview gets to have Windows 10 for free, even without Win 7/8 and even if they opt out of insider builds. This may be a deliberate choice on Microsoft's part in the end, or just a limitation of their activation system. For example, because of the new hardware ID based activation, they may not easily be able to "unactivate" a computer once it was accepted as activated.
with all the communication around the need to upgrade and activate ahead of the removal of the keys, builds, etc, what exactly were you expecting the outcome to be?
All the communication? After encountering the activation bug that was confirmed by MS in 10162, MS said not to worry and the issue would be fixed. 10166 was released 3 days after 10162 and every site said there were barely any changes, so there wasn't really any need to download another 3GB update that didn't do too much. The announcement they would be blocking activations came midway through the day July 13th, and by July 15th you could no longer activate. I didn't check out any news about Windows 10 for less than two days and I got locked out of activation permanently until they decide to open the insider program again. The one thing I didn't expect after 9 months of beta testing was to get ****ed over by MS two days before the RTM insider release.