upgrade

[cloedan]

hi all I purchased an upgrade for windows 7 from home premium to ultimate I have the upgrade key my question is I have changed my computer can I still use this upgrade on my new computer running windows 10

kind regards cloedan

[Breelander]

I purchased an upgrade for windows 7 from home premium to ultimate I have the upgrade key ... can I still use this upgrade on my new computer running windows 10

Have you already used this key to upgrade the old computer? If so, is the old computer still running 7 Ultimate? If the answer to both is yes then the key should not be used on a second system as that is a violation of the EULA.

Where did you purchase you 7 Ultimate key? There are different types of key, OEM and full Retail may be purchased legally by individuals. In some of the more dubious corners of eBay/Amazon volume licencing MAK keys are often sold purporting to be retail keys. They are not, MAK keys may only legally be purchased and used by enterprise customers under a volume licencing agreement. Such MAK keys may work for a while (until they are blocked by MS, that is).

If you bought the key in a high street shop, packaged in a Microsoft box then the chances are it is a full Retail key. You can check exactly what type your key is with the ShowKeyPlus app, free from the Microsoft Store. Click its 'Check product key' and type in your key. Only the Retail keys are transferable according to the EULA, an OEM key is tied to the machine it was first installed on.

A full Retail key for W7/8 Pro or above can be used to upgrade Windows 10 Home to Pro. You can enter it in Settings > Update & Security > Activation > Change product key. I'm not sure about using an upgrade key. MS don't have them now, there's no such a thing as a W10 upgrade key. If you enter a key that's not eligible, then it will tell you so and not make any changes to your system.

[cloedan]

thanks bree
I have just tried to enter the key and it worked now running on professional I bought the upgrade from Microsoft anytime upgrade in2010 hope this helps anyone who might have an upgrade in the drawer? thanks again bree you gave me a lot of help on the motley fool much appresiated kind regards cloedan

[Breelander]

thanks bree
I have just tried to enter the key and it worked ...

Glad to hear that

A note, in case you ever need to do a clean install on this machine. As a new machine that came with Windows 10 Home pre-installed it has a key for W10 Home embedded in its firmware (same apples to W8/8.1 machines).

When you boot from the install usb to do a clean install it reads this key and uses that to choose the edition to install, so a clean install will give you no choice, it will install Home. Because your PC now has a Digital Licence for Pro stored on Microsoft's activation servers you can then upgrade this to Pro by entering the generic W10 Pro key.
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