[Not working anymore] How to upgrade from W7/8.1 without going through the complete upgrade process

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@WITB

Free HWID can be established by full upgrade or by the gatherosstate route (last is subject of this thread) of genuinely activated 8.1 (No KMS*), or from DAZ or legit activated win 7SP1.

The oem:slp key from your laptop can't be used to activate win 10, only when upgraded or the gatherosstate route is taken, the COA sticker key should be able to activate a win 10 install (most likely to be Home).

Yen just listed all methods to activate and which are supported on MDL, having nothing to do with the tutorial itself. You can also google for hwid tools, but they are not supported on MDL and may not be linked at or discussed in detail.

And HomePremium can't be KMS activated anyway.

* Full upgrade from a KMS activated 8.1 that gives a free HWID too:

https://forums.mydigitallife.net/th...e-upgrade-process.64770/page-106#post-1559480 & https://forums.mydigitallife.net/th...te-upgrade-process.64770/page-94#post-1444049

 

The funny thing is, if your PC was pre-installed with Windows 8.1 and you clean install Windows 10 if you just click on troubleshoot in the Activation area in Settings, it will automatically activate, whether you used the upgrade offer or not. Microsoft really does not care and they can't deny support for something that they themselves allowed without any "hacks."

 

If 8.1 is a pre-installed OS on an OEM system, the system contains a MSDM and the MSDM is valid for 8/10, so the activation is by MSDM. The MSDM is hardware bound.

8.1 Multiple Editions ISOs (Home + Pro) and 10 Consumer ISOs (Home >>> Professional for Workstation) have the abilitly to readout the MSDM during setup and autoselect the belonging SKU for installation and the install is activated by the MSDM. It will turn into a HWID/Digital License.

 

Then what was the whole spiel about the free upgrade offer in 2015 for individuals with Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 if technically both PCs could be activated beyond that date. Entering the Windows 7 Product Key activates and creates an HWID/Digital License till today...

 

Marketing

 

Exactly, and tbh, Microsoft has all the power in the world to shut this loophole down....but at this point, their focus has turned to SaaS and Azure to which Windows has become one of the least priorities. (Which also stems to releasing poor, and unfinished beta builds to the public)

 

It is no loophole:
https://forums.mydigitallife.net/th...m-windows-7-to-windows-10.80679/#post-1562564

The free upgrade was never said to end after one year, the nagging and somewhat enforcing normal users to upgrade, was said to endure for one year

Officially, all people who paid for their OS are eligible for the free HWID, that includes Win 7 SLIC, 8/10 MSDM, COA, COEM or retail key.

DAZ Windows Loader emulates a SLIC, so that is seen by MSFT as a valid activation for the free upgrade, and in the past we found some ways to do it on KMS activated win 8.1.

 

I mean, yeah, it isn't a loophole for legally activated computers, but for Daz and KMS (not legal KMS) it seems to definitely be a loophole considering you are trying to fake something which is not officially supported although M$FT can't tell

 

KMS activated systems can only get a free hwid by upgrading using a 10586 ISO, at least in the past.

 

Just want to thank everyone in this thread. Didn't work on the first reboot (got some activation error about no product key existing?) rebooted again and I'm golden!

gatherosstate still prevails! Coming from a Win7 Pro Daz installation. Holy moley Win10 is bloated! LOL

 

This still works as of today. Tested on KMS activated 7 Professional and 8.1 Pro.

 

As far as we know, it only works on 8.1 Pro VL.

 

On Home and N versions it worked too.

 

There are, really, really, too many confusions these days.

I already did few times, KMS act'd 8.1 Pro VL upgrade to 10586 Pro Retail.

Now You say, it is possible to KMS act'd 8.1 Home upgrade to 10586 Home Retail?

And this:

So, is somehow possible, to go that route?

I mean, KMS act'd 7 Pro upgrade to 10586 Pro Retail?

 

I got banned from this thread discussing it all, but with 10586 it all was possible by using the gatherosstate from 10586 and the MAK activation key it shows when doing a full upgrade with a 10586 ISO, most are after Pro HWID, that's why most people will post it for Pro.

 

looked over that line

That won't work. Only for KMS activated 8.1.

 

Yeah, remember that.

Unfortunately, I did not copy-paste posts to notepad.

 

It all became obsolete when some MDL members created the HWID on the fly tools

Last thing about that, don't want to risk another ban

 

I can say with 100% certainty this works. I just did it on Tuesday. Here are my exact steps from 7 Home Premium, actually, to Windows 10 Pro 1909. Some of them may be unnecessary; if anyone thinks they can be skipped and still end up with a valid HWID let me know.

1. Use "Windows Anytime Upgrade" with the generic retail key (HYF8J-...) to upgrade to Windows 7 Professional
   
2. Install the Windows 7 Professional KMS client setup key (slmgr /ipk FJ82H-...)
3. KMS activate by preferred method
4. Run Windows 10 Build 10586 / Verison 1511 setup.exe (I used the TechBench ISO "Win10_1511_2_English_x64.iso" copied to a flash drive with Rufus)
   
5. Do not get important updates, uncheck "I want to make the installation better," do "keep personal files and apps"
6. Wait for installation to complete and check that Windows is activated
7. Download and run MediaCreationTool1909.exe from Microsoft, consent that you will not be able to go back to Windows 7, "keep nothing" this time
8. Wait for installation to complete and check that Windows is activated again
   
9. Erase hard drive (diskpart clean) and apply my custom (unactivated) WIM
10. "Windows is activated with a digital license"

I did the same with a non-Pro 8.1 machine and that worked as well, of course. I don't know if Microsoft relaxed their licensing requirements or if there is something oddly specific about what I did that caused it to work. It's also possible that this worked all along but conventional wisdom dictated otherwise.