Link your Win10 License to your Microsoft account

[Dahak]

/skimmed thread

My wife has a new Dell Dimension 3847 with Windows 7 which I plan on upgrading to Windows 10 soon. Then I'll make an image and downgrade her back to Windows 7 (her preference).

If it really new, it might already have a Win10 License. If so check to see if it came with Win10 Media. I know HP has been selling machine with Win10 licenses and automatically down grading them to 7 (Especially business Units)

1) Is it required to link your Microsoft account to your Windows 10 license?

No, it will work like always, the entitlement is registered in the cloud.
The benefit is if there is trouble re-activating it for any reason, the new Activation Troubleshooter(currently in the Latest Insider Build) can look at your MS account and see the activation listed there

2) Assuming it's required or beneficial, does she have to use a @hotmail or @outlook or can she use any domain (@gmail) as her Windows login?

2) You can signup any email address for a Microsoft Account, it does not have to be an outlook or hotmail one

Again, the link only has to happen once, you do not have to keep computer account logging into the MS Account, you can switch it to a local account after

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

Can I use this to install Win10 in a virtual machine with an unused Win7 key and migrate that to new hardware down the road? Even if that's not now known, is there any reason not go ahead and use the Win7 key in a VM just in case? I hate to miss out on getting it attached to Win10 just because I don't have it on any particular hardware at the moment.

 

[SparkyJJO]

Once you upgrade your pc to 10 and activate it you don't need to use a key for future installs but you do have to do it prior to July 29th. When I check my MS account all three of my pc's show up and I've clean installed 10 on each of them without having to use any key's to reactivate it which happens automatically once back online.

Right, I know, but I'm talking about down the road when I build a new PC and want to fresh install Windows 10 on that hardware which would be using my upgraded Win7 retail key. I'm assuming it should be OK though.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

Is the existing Win7 key actually attached to the digital entitlement upgrades? Or just to fresh Win10 installs that specifically use the key to activate?

 

[owensdj]

What if you link the Win10 license to your Microsoft Account and in the future want to sell/give away the computer to someone else?

 

[Dahak]

Can I use this to install Win10 in a virtual machine with an unused Win7 key and migrate that to new hardware down the road? Even if that's not now known, is there any reason not go ahead and use the Win7 key in a VM just in case? I hate to miss out on getting it attached to Win10 just because I don't have it on any particular hardware at the moment.

Unless your key is a retail key, then by the license, yes you can.
If its and OEM/System Builder, then per the license, then no, but there is not much technical limitations doing so

Right, I know, but I'm talking about down the road when I build a new PC and want to fresh install Windows 10 on that hardware which would be using my upgraded Win7 retail key. I'm assuming it should be OK though.

Yes, because the Win7 key/license is Retail, it allows you to move it to a new computer
so the Win10 becomes a Retail License and will allow you to do the same

Is the existing Win7 key actually attached to the digital entitlement upgrades? Or just to fresh Win10 installs that specifically use the key to activate?

Sort of, its tied to the entitlement in that it acts as a validation to allow the upgrade but it does inherit the licensing type from the underlying license it was upgraded from, so Retail to Retail or OEM/SB to OEM/SB

What if you link the Win10 license to your Microsoft Account and in the future want to sell/give away the computer to someone else?

You can remove the link from your MS account in that case. The machine will still have the digital entitlement up in MS. So that if the other user wants to re-install Win10 it should still active

The tying it to a MS account is just suppose to help with activation issues primarily, but I see it as an option to help keep track of them too

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

Sort of, its tied to the entitlement in that it acts as a validation to allow the upgrade but it does inherit the licensing type from the underlying license it was upgraded from, so Retail to Retail or OEM/SB to OEM/SB

But does the actual key get sent to MS with the in-place upgrade so if you later migrate that license to a new machine you can plug that key in during the Windows 10 install and it will accept it?

 

[spdfreak]

So, I want to keep win7 on my main system since I have a TV tuner card and 10 doesn't have media center. This is a win7 pro lic originally edu when I installed it a few years ago. I cloned everything to a new SSD a while back but still have the original hard drive just sitting in the machine. Can I boot off the old drive and install win10 upgrade with the SSD unplugged and then go back to win7 on the SSD? Not sure I'll actually ever use win10 on this system but I'd like the option.

 

[TeknoBug]

So, I want to keep win7 on my main system since I have a TV tuner card and 10 doesn't have media center. This is a win7 pro lic originally edu when I installed it a few years ago. I cloned everything to a new SSD a while back but still have the original hard drive just sitting in the machine. Can I boot off the old drive and install win10 upgrade with the SSD unplugged and then go back to win7 on the SSD? Not sure I'll actually ever use win10 on this system but I'd like the option.

Yes that'll work, I did that with the NUC last year, I still have a Win 7 drive but using the Win 10 drive (SSD) now and Win 7 boots and is still active if I swap drives. Also tested the same thing in a virtual machine in Linux with my Win 7 Pro license to Win 10 Pro license, Win 7 image still says actived.

As long as they're retail, OEM may have some problems but I'm not 100% certain, my wife's laptop had that issue but it may have been something else.

 

[Dahak]

But does the actual key get sent to MS with the in-place upgrade so if you later migrate that license to a new machine you can plug that key in during the Windows 10 install and it will accept it?

No, only the Win10 entitlement is sent to ms.
The Win7/8.1 key is only uses to check to make sure its valid for the upgrade.
Sorta like needing a valid id to get into a club

If its an oem license, you are not suppose to move it to another machine anyway.

If its a retail license, you can move it to a new machine. But this is where is not 100% detailed how it works. But my best guess, is the activation will fail, but if you have the previous Win10 entitlement linked to your ms account you can run the troubleshooter and point it to that previous one and it should re-activate.

If not you may need to use the phone activation

 

[Dahak]

Can I boot off the old drive and install win10 upgrade with the SSD unplugged and then go back to win7 on the SSD? Not sure I'll actually ever use win10 on this system but I'd like the option.

Yes, as long as both OSes are not being used at the same time. so you could not pull the drive with Win7 and use it on another computer while using Win10 on this computer

 

[spdfreak]

Yes, as long as both OSes are not being used at the same time. so you could not pull the drive with Win7 and use it on another computer while using Win10 on this computer

So, I guess I can set it up to dual boot... I also want to use storage spaces in win10 but I'm guessing win7 won't even be able to see the pool or drives. I'd just move to win10 but there aren't any 3rd party media center programs that work well with my old TV tuners (HDTV Wonders). In fact, I haven't found any that work at all. WMC just works flawlessly. It's a shame MS doesn't give the code to developers so they can make it a regular app for win10.

 

[Dahak]

So, I guess I can set it up to dual boot... I also want to use storage spaces in win10 but I'm guessing win7 won't even be able to see the pool or drives.

They should show up just as drives with the data, but never really played with it to much

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

This isn't really working for me. I've tried this on two desktop Win10 installs and if I log in to my MS account and go to account.microsoft.com/devices in Edge then that computer is listed, but only that computer and not the other. If I check that link from my laptop then neither are shown.

 

[Dahak]

This isn't really working for me. I've tried this on two desktop Win10 installs and if I log in to my MS account and go to account.microsoft.com/devices in Edge then that computer is listed, but only that computer and not the other. If I check that link from my laptop then neither are shown.

Odd. When I did it it showed up almost immediately, maybe sign in with the ms account and say signed in for a bit and see. might be just taking a bit to register maybe?

And you are signed in under the Accounts in the PC Settings and not just into the store or anything like that

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

Maybe I wasn't logged in long enough, but I was signed in in the right spot and had verified my account login. But neither have shown up from earlier just now checking again from my laptop.

 

[Muse]

I don't know how this happened but I have two Microsoft accounts. One is using my usual email address and the other is to an account that looks like ...@live.com. I have found this very confusing. When I'm asked to sign into my Microsoft account I never know which to use. My two Windows Phones are using the ...@live.com account, so I have to sign into that one if I want to restore a backup to a new or reset phone, say.

I also have a Windows 10 tablet. Not sure which account that one's signed into!

I am installing OSs on my two Win7 machines in the next few days.

Now, obviously, it makes sense to use the account associated with my actual email address so I get emails from them.

I called Microsoft support around a year ago trying to figure out what's up with all this and what I can do about it, maybe combine the accounts and wound up talking with support personnel for some 2 hours but it was never figured out what was going on and I just dropped the matter. Any ideas?

 

[Puffnstuff]

I would contact MS support about merging those separate accounts to end the confusion.