Activating Windows 10 on a fresh system with a clean install
Activating Windows 10 on a fresh system with a clean install
You've been using your Windows Ultimate OEM license for four years and recently upgraded to Windows 10. You made a bootable USB with Windows 10 Pro and backed up the activation details you thought would be needed later. You now have a Windows 7 OEM key linked to different hardware. You're wondering how to convert the old key for Windows 10 without losing your current installation. It seems there might be a way to update the key, but you're concerned about losing your recent upgrade.
Start by upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 10, ensuring it's properly activated. Next, carry out a clean installation; the process will handle activation automatically.
there’s no key for 10—it’s all set up online automatically from your MS Windows 7. Your Win7 key is essentially useless; just install Windows 7 on the new PC and upgrade it to version 10, then perform a clean installation.
You can likely boot from the Win10 partition again and activate it. The online activation will be tied to the hardware you used to install Windows 7, so having your old product key and ID confirms you own the previous version.
Could we simply restart from the Win10 partition and it take over? It seems possible...but I can't confirm. You might be able to modify the HDDs, though activation could still depend on the motherboard.
On OEM systems, Windows 8 users lack a product key. The key is kept on the UEFI chip. Product ID isn't sufficient as proof.
For reference, this should work if someone else encounters the same issue. I just replaced the old SSD with the new one in the updated PC, followed the full update procedure (making sure to pick the correct boot device during installation), and it started on its own. After taking out the old drive and starting from the new SSD with Win10 already installed, it detected the activation automatically and is now running smoothly.