11-06-2020, 06:23 PM
@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.
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.