I have a OEM Windows 8 Laptop, which I updated to 8.1. Unfortunately I had a SSD crash. I want to use the opportunity and install Windows 10. The way of work often described is to first install Windows 8 using e.g. recovery media. Then upgrade to 8.1 and finally upgrade to Windows 10 using MCT tool from Microsoft. What I know though, Windows 10 is accepting Windows 8 keys recently. My question is: will it also be possible to install Windows 10 directly (without first installing Windows 8) on my laptop? Will Windows 10 activate itself? I do not know the key since it is stored in BIOS and I cannot read it since no OS is installed on the PC right now.
This question was raised before. But now Microsoft has changed the acceptance of old keys. Will it also change the situation described above?
1 Answer
The 'free' win10 key works by upgrading the existing installation, not by installing from scratch.
Once you've established the key by this method, then any clean install will still work, as the key is 'remembered' by Microsoft as being associated with that machine,
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