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

Did you verifiy that you now are running pro, or is it Home?

 

Yeah I Verified it's Pro installed. I looked up the error and it said that to avoid that issue I should update the drivers on Windows 7 before I run gatherosstate, would that be right?

 

Yes, on 7 you have to install at least the lan drivers, windows 7 generic drivers are good too, as long as there are no Exclamation marks or question marks in device manager..

 

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Hey all,

I have another thread in the Windows 7 forum, but I realize the topic actually has nothing to do with Windows 7 so I thought I'd move it to here so people in the future could find it in the relevant topic area.

I got a HP Spectre x360 which came with Chinese Windows 10 Home on it. I would like to switch that to English Windows 10 Pro, and to that end I quickly realized using the Windows 7/DAZ method would be a royal pain as there are no USB 3.0 drivers in Windows 7. So I was recommended to install Windows 8.1 Pro, activate with KMS, upgrade to Windows 10 Pro, and that it should be activated with a digital license and then I'd be free to do a clean install.

Well, I have a Windows 8.1 Pro ISO, I install it at boot and use a generic Pro key when it asks, then it finishes up and I activate it via KMS (and check the activation status to confirm it worked). Then I upgraded to Windows 10 Pro, and it seemed stuck on not being able to contact the activation servers, so I used troubleshooting which told me (paraphrasing) "Your computer has a digital license for Windows 10 Home, you should install that." At that point, I tried using a generic Windows 10 key to see if it would bump up and activate, but at that point I got the dreaded red text telling me "You don't have a valid digital license." and now here I am.

Can anyone tell me what I did wrong in this process? I've heard it's possible to upgrade a KMS activated Windows 8.1, but I've tried 3 times now and it never seems to work for me.

Thanks!

 

Hello,

Hope im posting in the right place here...its my first post.
I'm from Holland ...i'll try my best English
For years i've been using windows 7 ultimate 32 bit activated with the DAZ loader v2.2.1. got it from this MDL forum. It's been working great! thanks!
My computer is a HP dc5800 microtower....yes its old!!
DAZ loader info shows now when run the exe once :
Build:7601.win7sp1_ldr_escrow.180330-1600
Board 2820h
Details: ASUS (10/26/15 - v2.1)

Info:
product ID shows xxxxx-OEM-xxxxxxx-xxxxx Activated.
Intel Core 2 DUO E8200 2.66 Ghz 4GB RAM DDR2 dual channel
64 bit capable processor.
MBR parttition
No Spectre patches for this machine.

I can't remember if i activated windows7 online back then or not (HWID) Maybe i used default option? but it shows activated and updates work fine too...
From oktober 2016 onwards i've been installing security patches only to help limit telemetry.
thanks to AskWoody's great site and contributors!
Ive got full system backups..

My question:

I didnt use the upgrade offer for windows 10 when it appeared cuz i liked w7.
I like to install windows 10 (probably Pro) to give it a try but like to keep windows 7 !
Windows 10 will be installed on a empty second harddrive. (i'm planning to use EastBCD to choose operating system )...know how it works..at least i did ;-)

1) Is a dual boot: w7 disk0 , with w10 clean innstalled disk1 on one PC possible without loosing my activation on windows 7?

2) If yes what is the best route to go. Should i get a particular w10 ISO, retail or other version? maybe best would be 1709 version " askwoody MS-DEFCON 2: Patch reliability 1803 is unclear"

Prefer a version with some options to limit telemetry ... dont know if the home version is suitable for that.
Already downloaded some tools: KMspico 10.2.0 portable en installable. KMS-VL-ALL-7.0RC and the TGK v5.1.0 and the KMS VL ALL Smart Activation Script ( abbodi1406 ) Checksums checked...if i looked right, DAZ loader wont work on W10.

My gues is that the gatherosstate route is not the way cuz i probably lose w7 activation due to same HWID.
Would like to have some guidence here on which steps to take.I appreciate if someone could assist me.

 

First of all, a kms activated Win 7sp1 or 8.1 will not get win 10 digital license after upgrade as that channel is excluded, and you will need to enter a retail key if you want to activate it. Now your laptop already a had windows 10 home digital license tied to it's hardware and saved at Microsoft's servers. That's why you were prompted to install the home version.

I'm not too sure if installing win7 sp1 pro/ultimate, activate (DAZ loader) and upgrade to win 10 will change that and give you a win 10 pro digital license but you can try, otherwise I believe your only option is to buy a win 10 pro upgrade. Or of course you can use a kms activation

 

1) You can do it that way and IF, by any chance, you ended up losing your Win7 activation, just reactivate it again with DAZ.

2) You need the Retail version of Windows 10. I honestly haven't heard anything about what you're saying of having issues with patch reliability on 1803, so you better stay on the safe side for now and use the 1709 and then update to 1803.

Go the gatherosstate route, and since you have Win7 Ultimate installed, you have to install Windows 10 Pro, to match the versions.

PS: With gatherosstate, you don't need any extra activators, because Windows 10 will be automatically activated in a "legitimate" way

 

Thanks for ur reply joluboga
Strange i seem to remember reading that gatherosstate and installing W10 makes w7 inactive...ur shure w7 reactivates again with DAZ?
should i loose activation on w7 do i reactivate it with DAZ settings default? or should i choose HP brand since this is my brand computer. Dont tinker with OEM settings? Should i uninstall DAZ first before trying reactivate again? v2.2.1 that ive got is stil ok?
gatherosstate is not involving validating windows 7 online? i can not remember i activated online when using DAZ. Could you please give me a link where to download ISO 1709 10 pro retail..was on a page (through MDL) with different versions but could not locate the right one...tried to copy the link to show u but i am not allowed yet to paste links....thanks again!

 

hi joluboga
see message before this one...that was tb.rg-adguard.net/public

 

It is also completely possible to have a pro digital license on same system that came with home version preinstalled.One just need to use ei.cfg method to select pro version during install else by default win 10 iso picks the version based on embedded bios key which is usually home version.

 

I know, i have all 15 possible hwid's on all my systems available

 

Ah, ok. I thought you could just upgrade with any version (although looking back, I see @Enthousiast specifically said 10586, so I guess I should have listened....). Downloading the .iso now and will give it another shot. I also tried the Windows 7 image updater tool mentioned earlier and it actually worked up to a point, but when it tried to boot into Windows following the install it crashed to a blue screen. So close and yet so far....

Ok, back to the Windows 8.1 method. Am I doing it right? Putting in the generic Windows 8.1 Pro key when it asks for a key during the install? That was the only thing I wasn't sure of....

 

Is OK.

 

You certainly won't lose W7 activation with the gatherosstate way. Having the same HWID is actually necessary for this route.

You would need Windows 10 Pro since that is the upgrade route if you go for the Daz Loader way of getting activation.
(Windows 10 Home has no way of unselecting Cortana for RS4 but Windows 10 Pro won't install Cortana if unselected during installation.)

I can confirm RS3(Windows 10 1709) works to get the digital entitlement and permanent activation with this route. Then you can clean install any Windows 10 Pro version anytime.

The latest RS4 doesn't even produce a GenuineTicket but still contains the gatherosstate.exe.

Anyway I am somewhat inexperienced so wait until someone else confirms. Thank you folk on this forum. Seriously

 

Yeah, about that. Is there a way to change the bios so that it will always default to Windows Pro instead of Windows Home?

 

Nope. Just use an ei.cfg file in \sources\ folder of the Win 10 ISO. It will allow to chose the edition to install.
ei.cfg content:

Code:

[Channel]
_Default
 
[VL]
0

 

Thanks
thanks for replying...just read about cortana...didnt no there was a choice to not install it..would ne nice to dump it from what ive read... i gues i'm bound to 32 bit version since w7 was that also. Strugling to find the1706 pro ISO

 

sorry mean 1709