Hi, I have a Dell PC which I had bought in 2012 and it came with Windows 7 Home. Then when Windows 8 came, I had upgraded the 7 to 8. Now I downloaded the Windows 10 ISO from Microsoft tool and booted the PC from the DVD. It asked for key and when I entered the key which is listed on my Dell CPU, but it said, invalid. Then I skipped it and went ahead with installer, formatted the OS drive. Now the windows 10 is installed and its now asking for me the key. I entered the same windows 7 key which I have but it says invalid. Now what to do ? And I see the graphics shows bad. Do I need to install the graphics driver again ?
You have to do a upgrade first, not a clean install. So you have to install Windows 7 home and then upgrade to Windows 10. And when Windows 10 is activated, you can then do a clean install.
wait give me a minute check pm and try something!! see pm your doing this You can also try the Command Line to change the Product key: Click on the Start Button and type: CMD (into the 'Search programs and files' field in the Start Menu) The Start Menu will show 'CMD.exe', Right-click the CMD.exe file and select Run As Administrator. In the CMD window, type: slmgr.vbs -ipk <type your product key here> To activate windows after changing the key, type: slmgr.vbs -ato Hope that helps, Darin MS
microsoft has always said win 10 is free to upgrade on qualified os's,upgrade,that's from inside of the os that you are upgrading from,after that and when it is activated,then you can do a clean install,booting from the disc and formatting the drive to install it clean isn't classified as upgrading.
How are you going to do a clean install after the upgrade ... ?? What I consider a clean install is from a formatted drive, at that point I would lose my activated install and be back to a non-upgraded state.
From what I can gather from Google. If you upgrade Windows 7 or 8 to Windows 10 you will get a new Windows 10 key when the upgrade is complete. You can then use this key to do a clean install of Windows 10 on another partition. Magic Jellybean Key Finder (the free one) will get the Windows 10 key for you.
The windows key is generic everyone gets the same. Skip giving key it will activate. Do not use a key The Hardware ID of your computer is stored on MS server when you do the upgrade. That is your activation
Sorry to butt in. I just wanted to say that formatting from NTFS to NTFS is not the correct way to clean a HDD, and a SSD should be secure erased. Beamslider is right, a HDD should be wiped which is called zeroing the drive. But I know how people hate to take the time to wipe them so they format. @ Zippy -They are also right about key, you are not given a special key, and don't add any key when upgrading during the install. Beamslider is absolutely right.
I upgraded a machine from 7 to 10. I then made sure it was activated. Today, I pulled the 2 original drives, replaced with a new SSD. Then installed win 10, skipping inputing a key. Once installed, it activated with no problems.
I just downloaded Windows 7, did a pen drive bootable and installed it. When it asked for the key, I entered the key from the back sticker. Now windows 7 is installed, but when I goto MY COMPUTER PROPERTIES, it says, 3 days until activation. Now, whats that ? Why is it not accepting my key on the back sticker ? WTF is wrong with windows ? And now that windows 7 is installed, how do I upgrade to windows 10 ??? I dont see the Windows 10 upgrade icon too.
You need to activate it. All you have done is entered a key at a point where the PC was unable to verify the key online. Once it verifies the key it should activate 7. Next mount the windows 10 ISO and launch setup.exe to upgrade. Skip any screens asking for a serial key. Once upgraded, the hardware ID is linked to windows 10. This means you can format and install windows 10 again for clean install.
1. So again enter the same product key from my back sticker ? 2. I have already downloaded the official Windows 10 ISO in a bootable DVD. Shall I simply insert and let it run while windows 7 is on and then goto setup and click there ? 3. It will auto upgrade the windows 7 to 10 and wont ask for key again, correct ?
If you still have that Windows 8 key, it may be easier to download the Windows 8 mediacreationtool, make a USB, install & activate with Win8 key. Then upgrade. windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/create-reset-refresh-media If your sticker key doesn't work, you may need to phone activate windows. It may be a scary thought calling Microsoft, but the process is relatively quick and painless. Either way, once you have an activated 7 sp1 or 8.1 update 1 install, download the Windows 10 mediacreationtool. It's different from the Win8 version, in that it also has the option to jump-start an upgrade. "Upgrade this computer" instead of making media. If you still desire a cleaner install of Windows 10, just perform a Reset without preserving files after Windows 10 is installed. windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/media-creation-tool-install (on this page click link to download software.