Hi all, Assuming the upgrade from windows 7 pro to windows 10 is free... My laptop originally had windows 7 pro on it (legit) it still has the cd key stick in the battery compartment. 1st question Can I install windows 7 pro again, and use that key to register it? 2nd question, windows 7 doesn't install in UEFI mode very well (that I know of) would I be able to upgrade to windows 10 (provided question 1 works) and convert it to UEFI? Thanks
RE:Q1 - I was wondering precisely the same thing - I have an old Lenovo laptop with a "Windows 7 Pro OA" sticker and product key, and I'd ideally like to use it to obtain a legitimate key for Windows 10 which I can install on my desktop machine instead.
From what i understand Microsoft may bind your hardware ID to their activation server so when you can wipe your drive install W10 in UEFI mode and your OS will activate on it's own but we gotta wait and see...
gatherosstate.exe (iso\sources) Tool to collect the Downlevel OS genuine state hexing the file shows this info that will be gathered: Code: SMBiosData (from MSSmBios_RawSMBiosTables wmi class) downlevelGTkey (TimeStampClient) OSMajorVersion OSMinorVersion OSPlatformId PP (don't know what is stands for) Hwid Pfn (Page Frame Number) OA3xOriginalProductKey (BiosProductKey) Security-SPP-GenuineLocalStatus DownlevelGenuineState (LicensingStatusInformation from slc.dll) SL_GET_GENUINE_AUTHZ GenuineId:SessionId (SLGetGenuineInformation from slc.dll)
Am wondering how much info it will pull from SMBiosData. The only indicator of the specific Winows 7 SKU that I used is the OEM tattoo string. (besides the general SLIC table info) What do you reckon the chances are that it will check this OEM "OS installed" info?
Just check your SMBIOS data with rw everything and assume they'll store the entire info. AFAIK type 0 to 3 changes result to installation id changes. They were not significant enough to trigger reactivation, though. Did some tests at vm BIOS 2 years ago.
Thanks for the replies, Lobo11, I think you missunderstood what I was asking, I want to boot using UEFI, rather than legacy, I currenty duel boot and run eerythnig UEFI, but if I install windows 7 in legacy mode will I be able to convert to UEFI after? (Ive tried and failed installing windows 7 in UEFI in the past) As for installing windows 7 again legitimately, is it simply a case of installing windows 7 pro (the version my laptop was installed with) with / without sp1 depending on whether it had it from the start and inputing the cd key printed on my laptop during install process?
Just do the upgrade when W10 comes out get a ISO and just wipe the pc clean and install in UEFI mode (if you even have uefi to start with), don't bother trying to setup W7 now.
You should install w7 in UEFI mode(works ok for me, just disable secure boot), then you'll be able to upgrade to w10 free without converting to UEFI.
Just a correction: 'pfn' means 'Platform', and not 'Page frame number' as stated above. See this example: -- OSMajorVersion=6 OSMinorVersion=1 OSPlatformId=2 PP=0 Hwid=XwAAABMANAAAAAEABAAAAAEAAgABAAAAAgABAAEAliuU2Q8WDFzZgua33+D8FOchtxtjqXcAM3/+YQwAAgABAQACBQADAQAEAgAGAQAIBwAJAwAKAQAMBwAAAAAAAAA= Pfn=Microsoft.Windows.101.X19-98868_8wekyb3d8bbwe DownlevelGenuineState=1 -- All help is welcomed.
micky1punch, answer for your first question: After having being upgraded to Win10 you get a 'generic Win10' key. All Win10 users that upgraded have the same. But, you can't just apply that key in a fresh install (that would be too easy). You can see the generic keys if you hexedit gatherosstate which is, a true keymaker.