Sorry for dumb question if already asked, but did not found exact response. A friend of mine has an Home made PC with a legit Windows 7 Ultimate x64 on it. He grabbed a Win10 10240 ISO made from an "install.esd" , then ran setup after mounting the ISO file. This was yesterday. (He could not resist to wait 12 day more !! ) He told me the installation went fine, and his Windows 10 pro show "activated". I ask him to check the status using slmgr -dlv and the 4 last four digits of the key are "3V66T". His question is : Does this installation will be upgraded after July 29 to final release ? He was not asked for creating an MSA account during install. Any advice appreciated , he has cleaned Windows.old with Ccleaner so cannot reset to Win7.
From what i have seen all Windows 10 users that have updated from other builds or other versions of windows are all using the same key "3V66T" , this key most likely will get black listed once Windows 10 goes public on the 29th and only windows insiders will stay activated as the our keys will be linked to our insider accounts , For those that have enrolled in the free upgrade when it enables there will probably be a key linked to that upgrade when using it.
Thanks you, He does not want to be "Insider", and the "3V66T" key came without any trick. I think the major error was to delete "Windows.old", so he can't reset to Windows 7 Ultimate with Media center. I will tell him about that, and maybe the best solution (Not easy for him), will be to format C: and reinstall Windows 7 and all his stuff for years. Hope he will get the white icon into the systray later...
Nope that key will be black listed on the 29th theres no way in the world MS will use a preview key for every computer running windows 10, After insiders will stay activated because of there insider program any other users will get prompt to enter a new key. All manufacturers would be supplied with new Windows 10 keys and stickers for all OEM machines.
I don't think that OEMs will supply stickers as they did during W7 times. Starting with W8, the keys are embedded into the BIOS and will be read there for activation
Windows 8 and 8.1 did have OEM stickers i think it was more up to the manufacturers if they installed them or not.
To get rid of kms tools in the wild "they" will surely tie the activation with hardware generated id's ??? maybe linked with an MSA account. The slic trick and or originals ones from OEM's may still work ?? i'll see that in the weeks to come ... But uefi bioses can have an integrated serial ... But slightly older mobo's with first generation uefi ????
oh, did they? I never bought any of such machinery, that is why I was sure they only put it into the bios
LOL, that was why I always type OEM;DM key, it's not typo. btw, Paul, just google image "windows 8 OEM sticker".
Those OEM:COA stickers are from oem version that you can buy small shops and system builders buy them not large manufacturers.
Btw, I checked my Surface 2 pro and I cannot find any sticker on it, that's why I assumed key is in bios only. Nothing on the carton or at the machine itself
As a Microsoft Registered Refurbisher, I have to buy the COA labels for either Windows 7 or Windows 8 at $6.00 each and they get applied to the hardware I refurbish. I can take the information from either the Windows 7 or Windows 8 hardware and put it back into my Microsoft account and they generate me a new product key for the hardware I am refurbishing. with the new COA label I have to attach it to the hardware alongside the original sticker that came with the hardware.
The reason for this change is simple (it's security / anti piracy reason) . It is only with computers running on Windows 7 (I follow realize it when I bought my laptop windows 7); is that the license key stuck in the computer is not actually activated. The manufacturer (Dell / HP / Acer ...) uses a different activation key which is indicated on the COA. In reality you can in fact anyone is this is the reason why Microsoft remove windows 7 iso from its official website, is that anyone can use a product key windows 7 oem Therefore now he need a key box product version to download windows 7 iso on the official website of Microsoft.
I dumped 10 off this computer and used that hard drive to install 7 pro. Have Win10 reserved and am waiting to MS to release the product. Hopefully I will then have Windows 10 Pro legally. I have another pc with 10240 on one of its drives. It's registered to the Insider Program. There is also a drive in it with a different Windows 7 Pro installed. I want to see how many copies of a legit Windows 10 I can get on two computers.