Legit Reviews

Has anyone here successfully done this?

Does it work with a fresh install using my Win7 Key, or do I have to upgrade from the same drive that Win7/8 is on?

How would this work with a dual-boot situation? ie: Win7 on one SSD, Win8.1 on a separate SSD with bootloader defaultiing to Win7 unless overidden in bios...

Kaos Kid wrote: ↑Sat Jan 18, 2020 12:42 pm Has anyone here successfully done this?

Does it work with a fresh install using my Win7 Key, or do I have to upgrade from the same drive that Win7/8 is on?

How would this work with a dual-boot situation? ie: Win7 on one SSD, Win8.1 on a separate SSD with bootloader defaultiing to Win7 unless overidden in bios...

I've been seeing a lot on this lately, guessing the Win7 lack of support has brought it to everyone's attention!

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ge ... ,5717.html

https://www.majorgeeks.com/content/page ... _2020.html

Personally I don't have the balls to put one of my 'puters on the line yet! Win7 works for me, why fix whats not broken!
But, this has piqued my interest!
If you decide to do this, please let us know how it goes!

I decided my HTPC would be the guinea pig, and installed last night. I downloaded Win10 Upgrade Assistant, installed directly from net as an upgrade to keep apps and files. It took about an hour on that dinosaur but it shows as activated. Some things didn't make the upgrade, probably because those programs were too old.

Kaos Kid wrote: ↑Sun Jan 19, 2020 8:55 am I decided my HTPC would be the guinea pig, and installed last night. I downloaded Win10 Upgrade Assistant, installed directly from net as an upgrade to keep apps and files. It took about an hour on that dinosaur but it shows as activated. Some things didn't make the upgrade, probably because those programs were too old.

And this is with your Win7 key?
Home to Home version?

https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu - what every windows 10 install needs!

KnightRid wrote: ↑Mon Jan 20, 2020 4:43 am https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu - what every windows 10 install needs!

I'm ok with Win10 but.... I have a cpl friends who have went to Win10 from Win7 and I've had quite a few calls and texts asking....

"where is this and where is that, I hate win10... they changed the names of everything and I cant find anything"

So, I do see a need for some to have this option!

BTW....The only 'puter I have on Win10 is the laptop and Only because it came with it!

thankfully everything I had on my windows 7 pc was compatible with my windows upgrade. so no issues there. but I have to agree some things did seem out of place and had to slightly re-acquire parts of my brain to get windows 10 working similar to windows 7. however not to criticize mircosoft, they did a good job with windows 10 IMO. just takes a few hours to familiarise yourself with it's layout. it's basically windows 7 and 8 combined

Well I can safely say that the free upgrade to Win10 from 7/8 still works. I have switched over 4 computers to Win10, all worked. Three of them were using the same Technet key I used years ago, activated fine. My daughter's Win8.1 laptop upgraded fine as well. The only ones that didn't were two PCs that I had Win8 Media Center on, stated that that version wasn't compatible. Fair enough, I got those Win8MC installs from a glitch M$ had in the past that gave you free upgrade packs from Win8 to Media Center version. Turns out those keys provided allowed you to activate Win8 at the same time. No biggie for me though, I never used them anyway Win8 really sucks lol. I'm taking off my dual-boots since Win7 is obsolete and I see no reason to keep Win8 around. Also frees up a couple of SSDs for me to apply elsewhere (I like to dual boot from separate drives, not from separate partitions on the same drive).

NOTE: All these were done as "upgrade this PC now", it saved all my files etc., some casualties among older software programs but that was the only hitch. Just download Microsoft Media Creation tool, let it do it's thing and then when it offers, click "upgrade this PC now". It could take various times, depending on your hardware. Perhaps after I get all caught up I will try a fresh install using a Win7 key and see how that fares.

LIke upgrades to LIke, ie: Win7 Home >>> Win10 Home, Win 7 Ultimate >>> Win 10 Pro

Thanks Bubba for the heads up from Rat's FB post

Glad you still have working versions of windows 10. I have used the same free upgrade key on this pc and never had an issue as of yet. but many of my friends have had the same issue as many due to some older programs not being compatible.

I have done several of these updates. I found that if you have Office 2010 installed the inplace upgrade will fail every time. Even if you uninstall it.

So if they have Office 2010, back it all up (should do that anyway). Use a key sniffer to get the Windows and Office keys, nuke the drive, and clean install Win10. Skip the key part of the install, once done, go to settings and at the bottom it will say "activate windows" slap in the key and activate.

Once done the key is now digitally activated to that hardware for Win10. So if you have to reinstall on that system, soon as it gets internet access, it will reactivate itself.

bubba wrote: ↑Fri Jan 31, 2020 2:18 pm I have done several of these updates. I found that if you have Office 2010 installed the inplace upgrade will fail every time. Even if you uninstall it.

So if they have Office 2010, back it all up (should do that anyway). Use a key sniffer to get the Windows and Office keys, nuke the drive, and clean install Win10. Skip the key part of the install, once done, go to settings and at the bottom it will say "activate windows" slap in the key and activate.

Once done the key is now digitally activated to that hardware for Win10. So if you have to reinstall on that system, soon as it gets internet access, it will reactivate itself.

and then install LibreOffice or OpenOffice (always fighting amongst the children) and stop paying a fortune for an office suite

Until opensource brings something to the table that will go toe-to-toe with Outlook, there are loads that will not move away from Office.

bubba wrote: ↑Sat Feb 01, 2020 7:30 am Until opensource brings something to the table that will go toe-to-toe with Outlook, there are loads that will not move away from Office.

Outlook is a beast isnt it! I just use gmail now but back in the day it was amazing what it could do. Mailbird was promising but i havent kept up as I don't need a super hardcore email program.

Thunderbird.... sorry, so sorry - although I have not tried that in a long time either....