Windows 10 Clean Install Windows 10: Product Key Question

[yoshirocks]

Hey everyone,

Yesterday I installed the free upgrade from Windows 10 on my Republic of Gamers laptop, previously running Windows 7.

I'm having some pretty severe issues, the biggest being that audio basically only works whenever it wants. This is a big deal for me because I use my computer for work as a sound technician for a church, so audio working reliably is absolutely crucial for me.

I have tried uninstalling the audio driver, removing the VIA HD Audio device from Device Manager, as well as manually deleting anything related to VIA HD Audio from the hard drive and registry, but somehow, VIA HD Audio keeps coming back on it's own. I don't have the OEM driver updating software, or any sort of driver scanning/updating software installed on my PC, so I'm not really sure how this is happening.

Anyway, I'm planning to wipe my SSD and reinstall Windows 10 from scratch. I have downloaded the ISO Image using Microsoft's Windows 10 Media Creation Tool, and burned it to a DVD.

So, here's my question: If I do this, will I still be able to reinstall and activate Windows 7 if audio still doesn't work properly? Or does installing the Windows 10 update render my Windows 7 OEM product key inactive?

I realize that I will lose the "Roll back to Windows 7" option in Recovery, but I have a Windows 7 OEM DVD that I can use to erase the drive again and reinstall Windows 7.

So what I need to know is: Will my Windows 7 product key still work if I do this?

Sorry for the length of this post. I hope it makes sense.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[kemical]

To get issued a free new key for windows 10 one must perform an upgrade initially. Your old key will silently be replaced by a windows 10 one but once this happens you won't be able to go back to windows 7. The original windows 7 key will basically not exist any more as it's been replaced by the windows 10 one. You can use something like Jellybean to find out your new key which you can then use to do a clean install.