You don't. Windows 10 doesn't accept Windows 7 keys of any kind, so you can't type in a COA key at any point before or after the installation. The Windows 10 installer collects hardware info and that gets sent to Microsoft if you pass a genuine test. When booted into Windows 10 it will then check that you're found on their activation servers. Your hardware becomes your unique activation key and the 3V66T key is nothing but a placeholder. It has no importance. Keep in mind that I'm the guy that brought Windows Loader to people, told others that the next Windows OS would be "cracked" via KMS before the OS even had a name and contributed to Windows 8 key decoding.
if you updated from a previous illegible OS 7-8-8.1, it will ask for key on clean install , don't enter any (for me it asked 3 times. 1 at the beginning, and twice at the end before entering windows) there's an option on the opposite side of "Next" in small text to skip that...it'll work for few seconds and then enter windows where it'll be activated... i just did it.
I highly respect your work @Daz, but be patient and make conclusions after Jul 29, OK? Just wait until Jul 29 when all MS pages about free upgrade goes live. Leaving for China .........
I think you'll all find the 29th is one big disappointment, other than a few pages popping up on their website explaining what we already know nothing at all will change. The Windows update offer of Windows 10 will gradually trickle down to pc's on the waiting list over the next few months (they have to be doing it slowly for bandwidth reasons, although it seems Windows updates are shared peer to peer now also which I would say was done in anticipation of the millions of 3.x gig downloads for the windows 10 free upgrade) but other than that, nothing will change. I don't see the excitement of waiting until the 29th, for most people here, that time has been a gone a over a week ago. Kms version won't change, the activation's of already activated legit copies won't change. Nothing!!! so no need to get all stressed about waiting! Daz is right.
Win 10 from 29 Jul will be leaked here, so no one has to wait for their reserved copy, the same copy will leak here at MDL
I agree with everything except the sequence, I am going back to check that I am not confused but I have noted: If you take the qualifying OS OFFLINE and Upgrade to Win 10 then only @ activation is the HW# validated and stored on the activation server. The INSTALLATION ID of the Qualifying OS could be stored during upgrade and then the HW ID extracted and compared against the Win 10 HW ID. If the Hardware ID comparison is within tolerance then the SPP flags the installation as legit and MS activation servers store the HW# for future activations. AFAIK the Installation ID is just an encryption of your PK and Hardware ID with a checksum digit being the last digit in each group. XP had 5 digits in each group but has since been changed to 6 digits in each group. There was a paper released on XP Activation ID but I have not seen any additional info since 2001.
Windows 10 activation failed for a dozen people that were activated via OEM SLP on Windows 7 but had no network access before upgrading. It simply didn't activate even when connected to the internet after the upgrade was completed. After they reinstalled Windows 7, connected to the internet and then performed the upgrade it activated every single one of them though. It might be different for Windows 8.x PC's as their activation channels are near identical. They decode keys the same way, both use MSDM tables etc.
OK I never tested it with Win 7 OEM-SLP/Loader this may be an additional online check. In Win 8.x OEM-DM are unique and the check may not be required.
Maybe. Honestly, after seeing so many reports of failed activations due to the lack of Internet access I've simply agreed with that without testing it out for myself. I mean an internet connection is mandatory anyway and you should download the Windows 10 updates prior to installing the OS, so it's easier for me to tell people that "an internet connection is required for the upgrade". It's less confusing for everyone that way.
Ok seems to be plausible. Retail key holders may be given a chance to upgrade and retain licence rights with a new key. Most likely that would require them to allow MS to revoke the Win 7/8 Retail licence. So it might be a good idea to wait if you have retail keys until GA. Upgrading a retail installation now may preclude you from upgrading to a new PK with full retail licence rights.
I swear some marketing idiot has convinced MS that keeping tight lipped and generating speculation is good advertising
WoW, this may affect some people here who jumped the gun so to speak, would upgrade be OK, with no clean install
no it won't, joining the insider program and installing Windows 10 was all part of the genuine thing to do, then you got the 10240 build installed as part of that, there is nothing wrong with installing 10240 over top of any existing version of windows, there is no jumping the gun! fear mongering!
I can't say if MS will really hold it against you. I think not. They have corrected issues before like the Win 8KMS to Free Media-Center Upgrade. But that was effectively losing revenue. That being said if you have a retail licence you do have some rights as per your EULA so probably not