Windows 10 Not Win 10 question but it's related.....

[davidhk129]

I have a laptop used to run Vista.
Bought a retail Win 8 Pro upgrade version and installed over the Vista.
Then upgraded to Win 8.1 Pro.
That is what the laptop is running now.

Question :
If I install Win 10 TP over the Win 8.1 Pro, does it free up my Win 8 Pro product key so that I can use it for another computer ?

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi

Hmmm, I don't know why not, it didn't ask me for any registration number at all and I dual booted it on my computer.
So I don't know why having it installed would be using your Windows 8 serial number.

They didn't say anything about this acting as an upgrade and I think you could install it on anything.
I don't think you even have to have Windows 8 installed on your computer to install it.

But you might be better off downloading the .ISO file and doing it as a clean install on your computer in a dual boot setup.

If you upgrade from 8 it might consider it an upgrade and retain the number.

Once it's running change the boot menu to boot only to Windows 10, once it's doing that for sure, remove Windows 8.1 and install it on the other computer.

They would want you to deactivate it from the computer you are removing it from before reinstalling is my guess.

This is all conjecture, on my part, I have no real experience that would prove this to be true.

Mike

 

[ussnorway]

Question :
If I install Win 10 TP over the Win 8.1 Pro, does it free up my Win 8 Pro product key so that I can use it for another computer ?

Yes, as long as the 8.1 pro is not bootable on that laptop... even as a vmware or something then you can put in something else and be fine.

 

[davidhk129]

Yes, as long as the 8.1 pro is not bootable on that laptop... even as a vmware or something then you can put in something else and be fine.

Thank you.

 

[Saltgrass]

Yes, as long as the 8.1 pro is not bootable on that laptop... even as a vmware or something then you can put in something else and be fine.

We may need to wait and see how the final version of Windows 10 is distributed. I would not think they would allow you to use one licensed version of 8.0 to install multiple versions of Windows 10. I haven't seen any rumors as to when the final version of Windows 10 will be released, but if the preview and pushed version upgrades work as expected, I would think it would be the second quarter of next year. But they could always wait until Oct or Nov...

If you are just referring to just the preview, since it can be installed without any prior install, I suppose you can move the license for 8.0 just as you can do now. Will that original Windows 10 system be able to activate as a final Windows 10 version without some purchased license, I doubt it.

I suppose the version of Vista may even be involved since you are using an Upgrade version of Windows 8 Pro.

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi

I agree with Saltgrass, as far as the Technical Preview you can probably do it, buy at some point you will have to buy the real version of Windows 10, if you want to keep running it.

The TP will have an end date.

Mike

 

[davidhk129]

With all the "rumours", including a confirmation from MS Indonesia President, that said Win 9 will be free to all Win 8 users, where do you find an article confirming we have to pay for it ?

Article published on September 28th.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2688...ndows-9-will-be-free-to-windows-8-owners.html
Granted that it is strange that the Head of Indonesia division would not know MS had changed Win 9 to Win 10, his statement of free upgrade cannot be discarded as "lack of information".

 

[davidhk129]

There is, however, one likely scenario. A similar format as upgrading from Win 8 to 8.1

Free upgrade from Win 10 with a generic product key to install but requires a valid Win 8/8.1 product key to activate.
In that case, my Win 8 Pro is not really " free " for another computer.

 

[ussnorway]

If/ when it comes to that, you could still put Linux on the old computer or even just toss it (the old computer) in the bin.

As it stands now the 10 preview will work, I assume Microsoft will have some kind of a timer set to make it shutdown later on but I don't work for them and the only honest answeer is I don't know.

This don't change the fact that you own the Win 8 Pro product key and can still use it on a different computer if that is what you want to do.