Here’s every little thing you’ll need to understand about the way to uncover your Windows 10 product key and how activation operates on free of charge upgraded versus new retail copies of Windows 10.
No matter if you availed Microsoft’s absolutely free Windows 10 upgrade present, which by the way was offered only till July 29th of 2016, or got a brand new license for the Computer off retail, online, or via subscription-based sources like Microsoft’s personal MSDN service and the likes, here’s what you’ll need to understand about Windows 10 product keys and the complete course of action involved in activating a machine on Microsoft’s newest desktop OS.
Windows 10 no cost upgrade product key and activation from Windows 7/8: In case you upgraded your Computer to Windows 10 from a genuine copy of either Windows 8/8.1 or Windows 7, your license might be tied for the hardware you upgrade on, not your Microsoft account, and you won’t get any new product key either. You can verify this using any third-party product key fetching software like ProduKey or The Ultimate PID Checker. They’re going to show you generic product keys like TX9XD-98N7V-6WMQ6-BX7FG-H8Q99 for Windows 10 Home and VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T for Windows 10 Pro edition.
So what if you’d like to clean set up Windows 10 on the very same machine? Yes you are able to do that by downloading an ISO file, turning it into a USB drive or DVD media after which operating the setup for clean install. In the course of install, when Windows setup asks you for product key, just skip the step and let it comprehensive the installation. As soon as Windows 10 clean set up is full, your copy of Windows will activate automatically as soon as you connect to Internet. This really is due to the fact Microsoft knows you clean installed around the identical hardware. You may usually verify your activation status from either Settings (WinKey+I) > Update & security > Activation:
Now if down the road you decide to change the hardware, you will must call Microsoft support, inform them about the change to get your copy activated.
Alternatively, for those who have your old Windows 7 or 8 product key with you, then you could activate the clean set up around the changed hardware as long as you have updated your copy of installed Windows 10 to November 2015 Update or later.
The TL;DR version of this is: Should you used Windows 10 free upgrade option on a Windows 7 or 8 Computer, you won’t get a unique product key. Your license might be tied towards the hardware you upgraded Windows 10 on, not your Microsoft account. Clean installs will activate automatically as long as they are done around the exact same hardware.
Windows 10 retail/digital product key and activation:
Should you bought retail license of Windows 10, or got a digital product key either from Windows Store, MSDN, DreamSpark, TechNet plus the likes, you obviously have a unique product key that you may enter in Windows setup for the duration of clean installations. In case you lose this number, you’ll be able to use third-party softwares like ProduKey to locate it on an existing installation.
The problem is that these keys are not tied to any hardware and are impossible to find if you end up selling your Computer that had Windows 10 activated using a retail product key.
The good news is that as of Windows 10 Anniversary Update and over (including the most current April 2018 Update), you may now link these retail and digital licenses of Windows 10 to your Microsoft account. Advantage? In case you get a new Pc, it is possible to just sign in using your Microsoft account that had a product key linked and your new Pc will have Windows 10 activated.
To link your product key to a Microsoft account, head to Settings (WinKey+I) > Update & security > Activation on your existing Pc and make sure it’s activated with the genuine product key. Next, around the very same Activation page, you will obtain a Add a Microsoft Account section. Just click on Add an account and after that sign in using your Microsoft account. As soon as you have connected your account to your Pc, The Add a Microsoft Account section from Activation page should disappear and you should now have “Windows is activated with a digital license linked to your Microsoft account” written right next to Activation label, as can be seen in the screenshot below.
And that is pretty much it. Your digital/retail product key license is now successfully linked to your Microsoft account.
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