Installing Windows 10 with a Windows 8 key?

Devilsbane

Long time no chat, sorry that I haven't been around.

Wondering if anyone has encountered this before.My parents had a Windows 8 machine (maybe it was 8.1, I don't recall) that was upgraded to Windows 10 for free years back when Microsoft was trying to push everyone up. They've suffered a hard drive failure so I'm going to do a reinstall for them but I want to reuse their license key.

Do I install 8 using the key on the sticker and then search for a way to do the update - I'm not sure they even still offer this. Or will the Win8 key work to activate if I install 10 on there directly?

Thanks in advance for your help

techfiend

Try installing win 10 with the windows 8 key, it's worked for me and one of the first steps. I don't think the windows 8 to 10 free upgrade works anymore.

Devilsbane

In doing some reading I found the offer, which expired in summer of 2016, to upgrade. But many people are claiming that it still works, or at least did as of a couple months ago.

Honestly, they'd probably be fine with 8. But I personally had a distaste for it. I'll probably just try to use their key on 10 and see what happens. Thanks techfiend! I'll also take the opportunity to get an SSD in there because it was painfully slow before (I had assumed the disk was failing even though all the scans came back clean).

malachi1612

Using the same Win 8 key will install when you do a fresh install of Windows 10. Also MS havent closed the loop hole of old keys activating on Windows 10 even after the promotion had finished. I still do it now with old Windows 7 keys.

FrankTh

Hi Devilsbane.
I may be a little late.
Simply reinstall Windows 10 using same version, Home or Pro, 32 or 64bits. Same language. Simply uncheck the key section.
It will activate automatically when installation is completed. Windows 10 goes by serial number of the computer.
Hope this information was helpful.
FrankTh

Neil86

Agreed with above ^^

I also still use the free Win 10 upgrade on Win 7 machines even to this day.

If you ever need to retrieve a key (or any computer info), I use Belarc Advisor (free) to create a comprehensive report on the machine and it includes the OS license key. It comes in handy sometimes for me when I cant find info on my computers.

Devilsbane

I finally got a chance to go over there and figured an update would be in order. Armed with a new (fancy SSD) and my Windows 10 disk. I turned it on to check it out and was surprise to find that it booted. It's still insanely low, but the fact that it work changed how I wanted to proceed. If the disk still works I can do a clone and then not have to worry about tracking down drivers and reinstalling all of their applications.

Several hours into it I'm finding the clone keeps failining, supposedly because of the new disk becoming unavailable. I yanked the drive and went home. Last night I plugged them both into my PC and for the life of me I can't get the old drive to be recognized. It also made some nasty grinding noises so I think it's pretty toasted. Time to plan another trip back there and proceed with the fresh install The plus side is that since I was able to get it running I was able to run a key extractor and gather a bunch of the software keys to make my reactivation go smoother.

focosolar24.com

wow what a hard work!!!!!!

victor.s.andrei

Skyliinez92 wrote: »

I'm pretty sure that Windows 10 assigns your license key to your MS account when you first sign in, so you should be able to install Windows 10 and sign back in, which will then reactivate your machine (providing you has a MS account to begin with).

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-link-your-windows-10-product-key-microsoft-account

I disagree.

Microsoft is processing Windows 10 activations on Windows 7 and 8 license keys. I know because I've rebuilt multiple computers in the past few weeks, mostly running Windows 7, and bumped them up to Windows 10 with no problem at all.

malachi1612

Skyliinez92 wrote: »

I've had to reinstall Windows 10 a few times in the past and as soon as I've signed into my MS account the OS has been activated. They key gets assigned to your account to make reactivation easier.

Yep, I've done this multiple times.

victor.s.andrei

Skyliinez92 wrote: »

I've had to reinstall Windows 10 a few times in the past and as soon as I've signed into my MS account the OS has been activated. They key gets assigned to your account to make reactivation easier.

Except I'm not signing in to any Microsoft accounts. :P