Info Confirmation that 'virgin' Win7/8 licences will no longer activate Win10

[mikeymikec]

'Virgin' in this case meaning that the licence has never activated a Win10 install until I attempted it today.

I can't remember/find which thread it was mentioned in vaguely recently that MS have apparently pulled the plug on the loophole that allowed any Win7/8x licences to activate a Win10 install, but I've just tried a spare Win8 Pro retail licence I have for a laptop that had been running Win8, I did a clean install of Win10 on it (1607, the fastest method I had of doing a quick test install on this ~2007 era laptop), and it would not activate. I installed Win10 fine with it because as far as the initial part of the install process is concerned it was a valid key, but the activation stage just said that it wasn't a valid Win10 licence.

I assume that any Win7/8 licences that have previously successfully activated Win10 installs will continue to do so. I haven't had any customers complain of licence problems either.

 

[JackMDS]

Unfortunately live at times get Harder.

You Can No Longer Use Windows 7/8 Keys to Activate Windows 11

It finally happened, Microsoft is no longer allowing users to activate Windows 11 using a Windows 7 or Windows 8 key.

www.thurrott.com

 

[zigzag03]

Just replaced a failed hard drive on an older machine, the 7 home key on the case worked fine to install and authorize fresh 10 home. It may be that since it had already been used way back when to go from 7 to 10 that it was "grandfathered".

 

[bba-tcg]

Just replaced a failed hard drive on an older machine, the 7 home key on the case worked fine to install and authorize fresh 10 home. It may be that since it had already been used way back when to go from 7 to 10 that it was "grandfathered".

If you'd previously installed and activated win 10 on that machine, you didn't need the key at all.

 

[zigzag03]

The first thing they asked for was the key, so since I had it I used it. Because I wanted to take it to pro from home, I purchased a new key for that and activated that afterwards. In fact, on the second install I told it I didn't have a key, and that gave the option to install pro right off, then when I got my key I activated pro. But no doubt you are right.

 

[mikeymikec]

@zigzag03

+1 what bba-tcg said - if you want to test if a board's licence is compatible with win10 these days, when you install Windows, choose the "I don't have a product key" option, but be sure to then select the correct Windows 10 edition on the next screen. If it's an already-upgraded licence, then when you later give it an Internet connection, it should automatically activate.

I did this the other day with a customer's old PC that they had given to me minus the storage, Win81 product key on the case.