[deanhills]

I'm trying to figure out what Windows key Microsoft will register if I should do an upgrade to Windows 10.  My current Windows 7 is Windows 7 Professional.  However it is an OEM upgrade on the same computer.  There was a copy of a 32-bit Windows 7 Home on it before.  

What happened was when I purchased the computer and asked for Windows 7 Professional 64-bit, the retail store unbeknownst to me loaded Windows 7 Home 32-bit instead. I never thought to check this. It was completely daft.  Like how would one load a 32-bit system on a computer with 8GB RAM - also Dell Optiplex 9020 is a business computer - why load Windows 7 Home on it? Problem was that I didn't use the computer for approx 10 months after I purchased it, as I was still very much attached to Windows XP and my previous computer of the time.  So by the time I started using it there was little I could do to sort the retail store out.  It was a discount back street little shop as well.   Outcome of this was I was only able to use 4GB RAM out of the 8GB available RAM and it seriously bugged me that I was conned.

Any way, I lived with this for two years until end of 2016 when I did a major upgrade of my computer RAM from 8GB to 16GB RAM.  I also purchased an OEM Windows 7 Professional 64-bit Disk and License and had that installed and successfully activated on my computer.  It obviously had a different Microsoft Key than what was originally installed.  When I check my current computer system for the MS Key it shows the latest one for Windows 7 Professional.

So I'm trying to figure out if I should go for an upgrade to Windows 10.  Will I end up with Windows 10 Professional or Windows 10 Home?  What key is attached to my mother board or would Microsoft be able to see with its upgrade process?  Maybe I should do a clean install instead of an upgrade and then enter my last activated Windows 7 Professional Key? Instead of a simple upgrade?

[xdude]

You have upgraded from Windows 7 home to Windows 7 Pro. So the Home Edition gone. Windows 10 will pick the current edition and it's key. Whatever the one Properties in My Computer shows you. I don't think Mother board has any connection to that. Key is part of the OS it's not on Hardware. But before you upgrade make sure to write down the serial and key if you don't have the original cover anymore. You will need it if you are going to do a fresh upgrade not on the previous one. If not then it shouldn't be a problem. Installer should pick the one already in there.

Hmm second thoughts if you are doing to do a fresh installation. There are conflicting info about it. Also I found this which you might want to read,

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/wind...e32e85e645
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/...oduct-key/

[deanhills]

You have upgraded from Windows 7 home to Windows 7 Pro. So the Home Edition gone. Windows 10 will pick the current edition and it's key. Whatever the one Properties in My Computer shows you. I don't think Mother board has any connection to that. Key is part of the OS it's not on Hardware. But before you upgrade make sure to write down the serial and key if you don't have the original cover anymore. You will  need it if you are going to do a fresh upgrade not on the previous one. If not then it shouldn't be a problem. Installer should pick the one already in there.

Hmm second thoughts if you are doing to do a fresh installation. There are conflicting info about it. Also I found this which you might want to read,

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/wind...e32e85e645
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/...oduct-key/

Thx @xdude.  When I click on Windows System in the Control Panel, it does show Windows 7 Professional and that it is activated.  Also, when I use a tool to check the Windows Key it comes up with the product key that was used for Windows 7 Professional.  What is interesting when I paid closer attention to the last Product Key was that the key was for a 32-bit installation.  So I have a Product Key for 32-bit, however that activated a Windows 7 Professional 64-bit OS. When I did research, looks like Microsoft doesn't mind, however on a one-off basis.  You only get one chance to decide 32-bit or 64-bit and can't change back to the other one after that.

I've got a slight worry, that the Windows 10 Professional upgrade went so well with my ThinkPad Laptop because there was so little on the laptop.  Even the Windows 7 Professional on it was almost unused as far as updates were concerned - almost pristine copy.  Maybe the less one has on a computer for Windows 10 to analyze or worry about, the better.  Wonder whether it may be a good idea for a reformat of the hard drive of my desktop computer before I start the Windows upgrade followed by a clean install.  Hopefully the License for Windows 7 Professional will still be good for the upgrade.

[Mashiro]

@deanhills

I have a small note for you regard Windows license keys and the OS architecture version / language versions of Windows: You can activate a 32 Bit and a 64 Bit version of Windows with the very same license key. Furthermore you can activate any language version of Windows of the same edition with the same license key. Same edition only! A Windows 10 Home key cannot activate Windows 10 Home China nor Pro or higher versions.

Of course it is highly unnecessary and absolutely not ideal to install a 32 Bit Windows version on a computer with 8 GB of RAM. They probably didn't even enable PAE mode to still be able to make use of the full 8 GB of RAM?!?! I guess they didn't.

Regarding the license used when performing a Windows 7 to Windows 10 upgrade: the upgrade process takes the license that is currently installed on the current (as in previous = Windows 7) Windows version. So you installed Windows 7 Pro on the system some years ago means you get Windows 10 Pro. You can see the upgrade path here. In my humble opinion a clean reinstallation is better. Not sure if the Windows 10 setup will take a Windows 7 license straight from the get go. You might have to perform a upgrade on that license first and after that do the reinstallation. You however always try it but create a backup before (just in case).

Edit: Forgot to mention that in the past it used to be so that you could still downgrade with your license to Windows 7 if you didn't like Windows 10. If you didn't do that the license key would be turned into a Windows 10 key forever and couldn't be used with Windows 7 anymore. Not sure how it is now.


@xdude

OEM license are burned in on the mainboard on 99% of all notebooks (5% are devices sold without Windows or custom notebooks optimized for Linux and don't forget Apple devices.). The same applies for a lot of OEM computers that you can buy from HP, Dell, Lenovo and etc. In that relation there is a connection between the key, mainboard and Windows.

The above however doesn't apply if you reinstall Windows in a different version with a different key. That however doesn't override the OEM key that is burned into the BIOS of the mainboard. The upgrade process of Windows 7 to Windows 10 takes the currently installed key in Windows - you are absolutely right with that statement.

[deanhills]

I have a small note for you regard Windows license keys and the OS architecture version / language versions of Windows: You can activate a 32 Bit and a 64 Bit version of Windows with the very same license key. Furthermore you can activate any language version of Windows of the same edition with the same license key. Same edition only! A Windows 10 Home key cannot activate Windows 10 Home China nor Pro or higher versions.

Aha.  This is great news.  And what I was looking for.  thanks for this.

Of course it is highly unnecessary and absolutely not ideal to install a 32 Bit Windows version on a computer with 8 GB of RAM. They probably didn't even enable PAE mode to still be able to make use of the full 8 GB of RAM?!?! I guess they didn't.

 No they didn't.  All I noted was the Microsoft Windows License Key on top of the Computer Tower - it looked legit and is legit - I was dumb however not to have inspected it closer as I may then have noticed it was a Home Version.  If one checks the specs of Dell Optiplex 9020 i7 Pentium, I haven't ever seen a Home version Windows advertised with it always Windows 7 Professional which at the time was 65-bit vs 32-bit Home Version.  I didn't even think it could be possible that they would have installed Windows Home version.  I naturally assumed, however also confirmed that that would be the Windows that would be loaded.  And then it was not.  

Regarding the license used when performing a Windows 7 to Windows 10 upgrade: the upgrade process takes the license that is currently installed on the current (as in previous = Windows 7) Windows version. So you installed Windows 7 Pro on the system some years ago means you get Windows 10 Pro. You can see the upgrade path here. In my humble opinion a clean reinstallation is better. Not sure if the Windows 10 setup will take a Windows 7 license straight from the get go. You might have to perform a upgrade on that license first and after that do the reinstallation. You however always try it but create a backup before (just in case).

 That is great news indeed.  I was thinking along the same lines too.  Like to do the upgrade from Windows 7 with data and some apps (I'm planning to delete all of the apps that may logically interfere, or not make the grade).  And once I'm comfortable to do a reset of Windows 10 with deleting all of the data and apps - like a clean install in reverse.  I've seen a tutorial how one could do this.  Windows 10 then warns the user that all restore points will also be deleted and there won't be a possibility to move back to previous software.  I.e. one wouldn't be able to downgrade from Windows 10 to an earlier Windows.  So when one does it one should be reasonably sure that one will never be able to move back again.  Microsoft is looking for commitment.  

Edit: Forgot to mention that in the past it used to be so that you could still downgrade with your license to Windows 7 if you didn't like Windows 10. If you didn't do that the license key would be turned into a Windows 10 key forever and couldn't be used with Windows 7 anymore. Not sure how it is now.

 That is correct.  I came across that in my research too.  If you want to change back before 30 days are up, then the previous Windows will come up as an option if one goes the reset recovery route. This won't happen with a clean install upgrade though. After 30 days are up, or if the upgrade had been with a clean install, it is still possible but with a clean install of Windows 7 and then using the old Windows 7 key to activate it.
https://www.howtogeek.com/220723/how-to-...-7-or-8.1/

---

OK.  So here is also something interesting.  I just checked on my ThinkPad Laptop that was upgraded with my Windows 7 Professional License. However when I checked to see what the license number of the current Windows 10 Professional OS on my laptop is, it was a completely difference license number. So that is probably what they mean with one getting a digital license from Microsoft during the upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10. I guess however that license is also just intended on an OEM basis, for the computer that was upgraded with the Windows 7 OEM License.

[Mashiro]

@deanhills

It depends sometimes. Microsoft is probably replacing the previous licenses with digital license. Have you by any chance signed in with a Microsoft account in Windows 10? The digital licenses are more like OEM licenses. They are bound mostly to your hardware. Too many hardware changes in the system will actually invalidate the license and one might have to use phone activation to revalidate the license key with the hope Microsoft allows it (it's automated so it probably works most of the time).

Basically Windows 10 is mostly a free OS for the small man / private customer. You pay with your data however... Microsoft's biggest source of income are business customers. They pay a lot for the licenses and services. Azure, Windows 10 Enterprise, Windows Server 2016/2019 and so on and Office products. It's a whole different level compared to what you get as a private customer. The other big earning branch is Microsoft's hosting platform Azure and its services.

[deanhills]

Have you by any chance signed in with a Microsoft account in Windows 10?

 No, I've tried my best to get out of it.  Right down to going into settings and turning off the option "let Microsoft advise you .... " and more.

The digital licenses are more like OEM licenses. They are bound mostly to your hardware. Too many hardware changes in the system will actually invalidate the license and one might have to use phone activation to revalidate the license key with the hope Microsoft allows it (it's automated so it probably works most of the time).

 OK got it.  Microsoft wants a committed relationship.     Makes sense however, and I think it is already great that Microsoft doesn't force you to pay for an upgrade on the same computer where you already had a Windows License that had already been paid for.  We're also long past the deadline.  I feel lucky I can still upgrade, and that the upgrade is so well put together by Microsoft, including setting one up with a digital license.  

Basically Windows 10 is mostly a free OS for the small man / private customer. You pay with your data however... Microsoft's biggest source of income are business customers. They pay a lot for the licenses and services. Azure, Windows 10 Enterprise, Windows Server 2016/2019 and so on and Office products. It's a whole different level compared to what you get as a private customer. The other big earning branch is Microsoft's hosting platform Azure and its services.

I guess I'm not going to be good for Microsoft from that point of view.  After the installation I unticked everything on offer except ability for voice recognition systems.  I probably will never use that, but just in case.  I also turned off most of Microsoft's notifications.  And must say something else I'm impressed with.  Microsoft actually listening to criticism and including ability to untick it's marketing notifications.

To be honest, so far nothing has happened during my test upgrade that made me feel like "this is not for me - get out of here".  So far I see it as an improvement, even for hardware that has been created for Windows 7.  I hope I'm not speaking too early though.  I still need to "experience" the major upgrade of my primary desktop computer.  Before that happens I want to see how the famous update system of Windows 10 Professional works on my test laptop.  From complaints I thought I would get regular popups and nailing the system down, but I haven't had a single update event yet. I remember with Windows 7 after its installation and hundreds of updates, and it never ended there, those multiple updates still continued for days after installation. So I'm delightfully surprised that after installation of Windows 10 Professional there hasn't been a single update event in the 4 days I've been on Windows 10. In the meanwhile, I've decided to go along with Microsoft's automatic updates, until the updates become uncomfortable.  And only act then.  I've always been on automatic updates any way, until in 2016 when Microsoft tried to force upgrade to Windows 10 through its updates in a sneaky and dishonest way. Before then, it's never been a big deal for me, and I thought essential for security.  Could be Microsoft has become sensitive to criticism and if the upgrade update process is a good example of what to expect of how the updates are implemented by Windows 10, I can definitely live with it.