W10 : Fresh Install and Activation from of Build 10565

[PeterSt]

Hi All,

I didn't test this yet, anyway it looks as you can use your win 7 or 8 Key to activate a fresh 10 install. Not bad!


http://www.neowin.net/news/windows-10-activation-made-easier-allows-you-to-use-windows-7-or-8-keys-for-clean-install

Ha !
Now *that* is good news. And only invented yesterday ?

Of course now I wonder whether that can be let loose on our 10240 build ...

Fralippo, thank you so much for sharing this !
Peter

I did a bit of research this morning and this is what I found :

This means of Activation can only be applied to W10 Build 10565 and higher.

You can use the Key of any of those OSes (W7, W8, W8.1) if only they were used for Activation earlier. Read : the Key must me known to the Microsoft servers.
N.b.: I now say W7 and not W7-SP2 (Service Pack 2), because it is not mentioned. But I doubt whether it can now be Native W7.

It will not apply to W7/W8/W8.1 Enterprise editions.

If you have a Laptop or other purchased device which never needed Activation, the Key is embedded in the firmware and 10565 and higher will Activate automatically.

If I read correctly it must be done within a year from July 29 2015 or otherwise it is not free. But this is a bit vague for me.

Activation FAQ for Insider Preview Build 10565.

Peter

[Diede]

Hi all,

I've been running Windows built 10074 since day one and was pretty happy with the sound.
I changed the date, was not connected to the internet and kept on using it untill two days back when I wanted to install a driver and could not get out of MinOs.
After trying just about everything I finaly changed the date to the actual date and rebooted. All blocked and I could not boot any more.

So I decided to do a fresh install of the latest official Windows 10 version.

The install worked, but I could not get Windows activated with my Windows 8 pro product key. I tried the automatic key generation by Phone, again this didn't work. Finally I called Microsoft and asked for instructions, this is what they told me:
You cannot do a clean install of Windows 10 and get a free license key unless you've already done an upgrade to Windows 10 previously on the same machine. During the upgrade Windows registers a key on the motherboard and from that moment on your computer has a Windows 10 key embedded in its firmware.
Only afterwards you can do a clean Windows 10 install and it will automatically find the key.
Allthough this key is not limitted in time, it applies only to this machine. If you have to change the motherboard, the key will no longer work on another PC.
This upgrade procedure will only work within the first year of Windows 10 as Peter said.

After that only your original version (Windows 8 pro in my case) can be activated with the original product key on any given machine.

So in conclusion I will have to reinstall Windows 8 pro, activate it, perform the upgrade to Windows 10, and finally do a clean install of Windows 10 (the last only because I like to have a clean isntall).

Hope this helps ...

Diede

[PeterSt]

Hi Diede,

Thank you for sharing this.

So I decided to do a fresh install of the latest official Windows 10 version.

Which is ?
(there's some story behind this)

Thanks,
Peter

[Diede]

Hi Diede,

Thank you for sharing this.

So I decided to do a fresh install of the latest official Windows 10 version.

Which is ?
(there's some story behind this)

Thanks,
Peter

Hi Peter,

Build 10240.

Diede

[PeterSt]

Hi Diede,

10240 ? in that case you were officially told the wrong thing; 10240 does not do that. 10565 does.

Also, 10565 currently "will be" the latest official version. It is not yet, but it will be soon. At least that is what I think of it. But there's also the possibility that 10565 will be superseded after all by a higher build number; 10565 was meant to be the next official release (and it is there for ISO download at this moment) but "of course" it is flawed in many places (as it appeared) so maybe this one isn't going to make it after all.

Over here 10565 seems to work fine (technically). It is branded with "Preview" (bottom right corner) but that happened with 10240 just the same in the 10 days or so when it was there already, prior to July 29. Of course that requires automatic upgrades again, which we don't like.

Best would be to wait until it is announced that 10565 is "final", *or* that a next one is (November ultimately). IIRC the current 10565 (the "Preview" branded one) expires on July 15, 2016.

Regards,
Peter