Win7 - Win10 round trips possible after July 29th?

[Chicken76]

As I understand it, I can upgrade my Win7 boxes to Win10 for free until July 29th, and can revert to Win7 at any time, right?

But what happens if after that date I want to do a fresh install of Win7? Will the product ID on the sticker be permanently associated with Win10 and refuse to activate automatically?

Also, would a return to Win7 invalidate my option to go back to Win10 free of charge later on?

I can't run Win10 yet, as the applications that I use are not compatible with it, but I also would like to not miss the free upgrade, so I intend to image the current Win7 installation, upgrade to Win10, image that, and then write the Win7 image back, keeping the Win10 image for when the applications catch up with the OS. Any ideas why this would not work?

 

[hhhd1]

if you have a OEM motherboard with win7 license, the oem win7 installation should still work anytime because it is activated offline.

 

[Chicken76]

if you have a OEM motherboard with win7 license, the oem win7 installation should still work anytime because it is activated offline.

They're not OEM systems. I've put them together and the Windows 7 COA is a sticker attached to the case.

 

[sm625]

They're not OEM systems. I've put them together and the Windows 7 COA is a sticker attached to the case.

I do believe this is what OEM versions are. They are the versions with the sticker on the case... meant for one machine and one machine only. That machine should always activate with its win 7 key for the foreseeable future..

 

[Chicken76]

I do believe this is what OEM versions are. They are the versions with the sticker on the case... meant for one machine and one machine only. That machine should always activate with its win 7 key for the foreseeable future..

I think hhhd1 was referring to brand-name machines (HP, Dell, Lenovo, etc) which don't even come with COA. They don't supply even serial numbers to do clean re-installs.

 

[hhhd1]

I think hhhd1 was referring to brand-name machines (HP, Dell, Lenovo, etc) which don't even come with COA. They don't supply even serial numbers to do clean re-installs.

That is correct, I was refering to HP,Dell,..etc, but, I also think that what sm625 wrote is probably true.

Lenovo laptops for example comes with an OEM activated via a generic key (probably built-in windows image that they apply to all laptops), and also, comes with a SECOND unique key per laptop on a COA that can be used to activate the laptop in case a recovery OEM image/DVD is not available.

I can't think of any reason why MS would stop people from using either methods to allow activating, unless they really want to push windows 10 down people throats ..

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Here's what I understand, and wish I'd understood it 9 months ago.

Whether "branded" or simply white-box-OEM, you can simply upgrade to Windows 10 assuming you continue to use the same hardware.

Or, you can download the "media creation tool" for Win 10, create the USB or DVD Win 10 install disc, and install it on a separate drive partition of the Win 7 computer, activating it with the Win 7 product key. You would then have a dual-boot Win7/Win10 system.

Once activated on that particular hardware, it wouldn't matter whether you revert back to Win 7 by removing the Win10 installation, or remove the Win 7 in deference to the Win 10. You could do a clean install of either and sail through activation regardless.

But it seems to me that if you want Win10, want the flexibility I've mentioned -- you would need to get the Win10 activation completed before the July deadline.

Keep the USB or DVD install media for future use or bare-metal reinstallations.