So I'm new here and I've been spending the better part of my entire day trying to get Windows 10 functioning on my machine. I've looked around a bit but I didn't find a very clear guide on what to do, just different people's experiences and a whole bunch of information that I'm just too green to understand at the moment. What I know about this process so far is that the success of this seems to vary from person to person, so if anyone could help me, that would be fantastic. I'm currently in the process of installing a fresh copy of Windows 7 Ultimate. No pre-activation or nonsense like that. Once that's done, I'm immediately going to use daz loader and activate it, then I'm going to install Windows 10 Pro that I downloaded using the media tool from Microsoft. Hopefully that will work, but I'm almost certain it's not going to because that's just too good to be true. Things I should probably mention: 1. I have a UEFI motherboard, but daz loader seemed to work just fine for me for the longest time. I've heard that the type of bios you have can make things more complicated so it's worth mentioning I guess. 2. I haven't disabled my internet connection, so I don't know if that would change anything. I'm too flustered at the moment to think of any other useful information at the moment, so ask away. I'm also sorry if this is a redundant post, I'm sure there are many people who need help with this sort of thing and have done just as I have so I apologize in advance.
You want to be online to activate and for your Windows 10 to record that you had an active Windows 7 during the upgrade.
First and foremost, welcome to MDL! As for your inquiry, I'd stay away from loaders -- they're never guaranteed. Why not just download and freshly install Windows 10 and search for a genuine key?
Well for a number of reasons I don't think that will work. Mostly because genuine windows keys aren't really floating around the internet for the taking. I have a few genuine OEM keys but I lack the know-how to put them to use. Simply entering them when prompted doesn't exactly work as they're tied to specific machines, the install just rejects them and asks for another.
Just activate with 7 with daz loader after the install, check the activation, and then upgrade and you'll be activated. You must do the upgrade first or your clean install won't be activated. If you want you can do a clean install after the upgrade and you'll still be activated. You have to be connected to the internet at all times. That's how Microsoft identifies your upgrade and clean install and activates them (by what's called your Hardware ID--they don't use keys for this scenario). Your motherboard may be UEFI but you're probably using MBR mode because daz loader works only with that. I'd stick with that for convenience sake (UEFI can be a headache). You can do the clean install either by a resetting the PC in Settings-->Updates and Security-->Recovery or wiping your disk and installing. You still be activated by the Hardware ID. Of course back up all your data and have any programs you want on original media so they can be reinstalled. You'll need original media for programs as moving them is very difficult, if not impossible.
Thank you, this is incredibly helpful. Right now I'm fighting with daz loader because during my reinstall of windows 7, something with the partition went wrong, but I will update as soon as possible. Thank you again.
Only the upgrade but if you look around many, many people have done the clean install without any problem. I've heard sometimes it could take as much as an hour to get activated after the clean install, but it should happen. By the way, just use the daz loader--countless people have done it with that--no problem.
Yes, I have. I have done it the valid and correct way. I have also done it the sneaky way using DAZ. It worked. edit: I would however after upgrading and after being activated, say maybe an hour or two or more after... Preform a clean install. No telling if or when M$ will snoop into your old Windows.OLD folder.
Just a small update, I successfully fixed the partition issue and got daz loader installed. I'm going to try to install windows 10 now, but one thing I'm not sure about is if the Windows install has to be updated or not. If it has to be, this could take another day or so. If anyone knows the answer, please by all means tell me.
Well, if you already installed Windows 7, and it's succesfully activated with the Daz loader, you can uprgrade easily. just run the tool Microsoft did for that, or download the iso and run the upgrade from Windows 7, it should be OK. Remember you need to UPGRADE your Windows 7 first to Windows 10, later, if you want a clean install, after the upgrade was succesfully activated, keep your ISO, boot from it, and perform clean install, skip all the keys, it should activate by itself again.
Wow, that's really good to hear! I tried it once before but I had a pre-activated one that didn't work. I'm using a bare ISO this time. Also, another update! Windows 10 is installing successfully as I'm typing this. Hopefully it works. Looks promising so far. I'll update in a bit.
Great news! As of right now I'm looking at my new Windows 10 desktop and an activated version of Windows 10 Pro! Going to do a fresh install to get rid of that windows.old file just in case and I'll update again in a few days. Thank you everyone for all the help, it's greatly appreciated.
You can do the clean install but if your 7 was fresh and you upgraded it'll probably work ok, and you could save all the hassle of another install. I upgraded because I wanted to keep all my 7 stuff and configuration. I know, everyone hates upgrades (and that includes me too), but I've found that if the prior OS is in good shape it can work out pretty well, and of course save a lot of time. By the way, all you have to do to get rid of all the old 7 stuff, including the windows.old folder, is do a disk cleanup on your drive and one of the choices is dumping the prior OS. If that's checked it gets rid of all the old stuff, including the .old folder. Of course at that point there's no going back to 7.
You can't install in UEFI with a GPT table and use Daz, it must be MBR. So you'll need to install as legacy using BIOS mode and not UEFI.
but you can eventually get to GPT with Win10. Run loader with Win7 to MBR drive, do the complete upgrade etc etc. And then when you are finished and completely activated with the upgrade-> Boot to a UEFI setup USB/DVD and clean install Windows 10, go to custom and delete all partitions so they go to unallocated space. Click NEW and Win10 will build the GPT structure and UEFI partitions etc and TAH DAH! heh its a hella long way around the block though!
Thanks EF, I should have added that you can pre format in GPT, but you can't run in a pure UEFI mode, but if your HDD are over 2tb, you'll need GPT to boot. And thanks for the second half, didn't know it would work.
Hello, I'm back again and Windows appears to be still genuine. I'm a bit curious about daz loader though. Is it still active and running or am I now truly genuine? Or is this a question that only time will tell?