have question I install 8.1 wmc clean install with 10$ wmc key never had 8 or 8.1 key and windows 10 has no wmc will this upgrade using wmc key ?
I believe you use a generic 8.1 key (not activatable) or a KMS key before upgrading to the WMC Edition of 8.1. First of all - MS HAVE NOT revealed ANY activation procedures about 10. We know nothing about how it will work. If you're getting the GWX App in your taskbar, that doesn't necessarily mean you'll upgrade to an activated 10. In other words, nobody knows yet. I think your original key is logged when upgrading to WMC, so MS can look for that key instead, and say "nope". But we don't know yet, as MS are hiding all activation procedures from us to avoid it getting hacked prior to release.
I have 4 activated keys for Pro WMC (free WMC keys), and I'm pretty sure that these activated Win 8.1 Pro WMC will be upgraded to Windows 10 Pro with a legit and activated license (or maybe they will need a phone call). I've directly installed Pro WMC (from an edited Windows 8.1 Pro image) and I activated them with phone calls. But of course, nobody can be 100% confident that this will work.
Phone activation and normal activation can't even be spoken about in the same paragraph as they are so different and there hasn't been a single word mentioned about phone activation in windows 10 that I have read.
I wonder if WMC will get removed during the upgrade process. Ill have to follow a few of these WMC threads and find out lol
And I wonder if phone activation will disappear with free upgrades. MS says internet access is required for the free update and they leave it right there so you can read into that anything you want and like with so many of these things only time will tell.
fairly sure they will activate. As long as windows 8.1 With WMC is activated using its own key you got for free it should work. The old key no longer matters its that new WMC key that does and that key was genuine from microsoft. So if you went MAK > FREE WMC or KMS > FREE WMC it should not matter. The key you currently have is still a valid genuine key. I cant see microsoft going through all the effort trying to filter out the people who got a WMC activated operating system via kms/mak. (don't even know if thats possible also, its not like the old key is even stored anywhere) If they were bothered and could they would have done this already in windows 8/8.1 imo. There was even another way to activate with a free WMC key all you needed was the token files and stuff from any activated system (didn't even have to be from your own) you could just make an ISO with someone elses activated files and during install it would take your free WMC key. This could just activate normally / via phone depending if you used your own files from that machine or someone else's.
I think too that the way you activated your retail WMC edition doesn't matter, since your license has been validated by MS and acts now just like another retail license (the computer with activated WMC is now recognized as a legit computer, even if the process needed a phone call). I don't think MS will check the past of your license (and I don't even think they can do it for the mass). If MS was able to do that, my hacktivated WMC licenses should be already recognized as illegitimates, and they are actually not. Because the number of WMC users are insignificant and hacktivated WMC are even more insignificant, even if it could be technically possible, MS will not investigate to track who use a hacktivation method and who really use a legit Pro retail license before upgrading to WMC. It could be to expan$ive to do that and MS would better offer the promotion to this kind of WMC users for economic reasons. And finally, MS cannot take the risk of disallowing the Win 10 promotion to (some) legit WMC users because they were qualified as illegitimate WMC users by error, or because of any other reason. It's why I think ALL activated retail WMC copies will be able to upgrade to a legit Win 10 Pro.