I am sure this question has been answered before, but as there are 1300 pages on Toolkit please bear with me. I do find it difficult to follow all posts, and would appreciate a simple answer. I know some scoff, but I thought this forum was also meant to help the less able. I have installed 7 Ultimate 32bit on a clean formatted hard disk, and activated with DAZ Loader, then installed 10 Pro from the disk downloaded from MS. Once on-line it automatically activates 10. The reason I say once on-line is that my Ethernet never works after 7, but magically 10 sorts it and is on-line by the time 10 has finished. I like to reinstall 7 and 10 from a clean start, if I suspect any malware or other problems. I know many here disagree, but I have time to do it, and it always end up clean without any crap. My question is - After a year - OCTOBER 2016 or around that date, will I still be able to do the above routine and ends up with a clean 10 activation? If the above will not work after the year,is there a way of retrieving the key MS has used to activate 10, and providing I do not change hardware, will that be an alternative, and still get a clean activation? If I have to go down the Toolkit route after the year, would one of the experts be kind enough to send me a private message pointing to the link that activates 10.
once you have successfully upgraded from 7 to 10, Win10 will be able to clean install and activate on its own from then on. The one year free deal is you have one year to take advantage of the free offer. The free Win10 will last forever or to the end of the current machine you installed it on. IF you change system you no longer have your free Win10. You only have to perform the upgrade from 7 to 10 once. Upon completion and successful win10 activation, you can remove 7 from the equation when installing 10 the next time. Just skip the key during win10 clean install and go online to allow it to activate.
Grateful thanks for such a quick and favourable answer. I did not think it would remain so easy. Just one more point - as I like to start with a clean formatted hard disk (using Paragon) will the key be in the BIOS? The desktop came without a key or any software, and I do not fully understand the BIOS system.
1) Once Windows 10 is activated, just reinstall 10 Pro at any time (skip key during installation) and it will automatically activate when you go online 2) You don't need the key as it will automatically activate online
what has happened during the upgrade from 7 to 10 is, the system sent a hardware ID (HWID) to MS. So when you go online after a new install of 10, MS will see your current system (as long as you don't change hardware) and know it is eligible for the activation since the HWID matches what they have during your upgrade.
What a fantastic reply. I did not fully understand the activation system, and you have made it crystal clear. Sure this will benefit other members who might like a clean start. Thanks very much.
Well technically that wouldn't be the case here. The OP says he hasn't got network/internet connection after the windows 7 installation, so the hardware ID could not have been sent out. However I do believe the windows 7 (DAZ) activation status carries over to the windows 10 installation and I guess eventually a sync up will occur with the Microsoft system. In other words, I think you'll be good to go !
Alright so I just realized this the hard way. I'm using the same install with a different motherboard and cpu.. and now it's telling me to activate Windows. So there's no way to transfer the license? As soon as you upgrade a hardware part, your software is no longer valid? What the hell?
Activation is mostly tied to your motherboard. The HWID is tied heavily to you mac address which is unique to every device. It's not transferable...
windows loader time! hurry before the summer end of free upgrade err.. sometimes MAC addy could be reflashed but not sure if that would work anyways as rest of hw is different