If I reset on windows 10 will I have to enter a product key?

[Chris OMahony]

I bought my pc second hand early last year and it had windows 7 installed. I recently got the free upgrade to windows 10 and it has been great so far, however my hard drive is getting filled up quickly and I would like to reset and get a fresh install.

Will I have to enter a product key? I don't have a product key however my copy of windows is genuine.

 

[WyomingKnott]

Accepted wisdom is that once you have upgraded a machine to 10, that machine will activate after a fresh installation. Were I you, I'd do a complete backup before trying it, so that I could restore it to a working state *just in case.*

Err, how did you get a Win7 PC with no key? If it was OSed by the manufacturer, the key should be on a sticker somewhere.

 

[justajohn]

Ive done this with a few PC's now... and I can tell you from experience YES you will need to enter your product key to do the full install, and NO, the existing windows 7 product registration key you have will not perform the full install for win10.
It will tell you your key is invalid and to buy a new key in order to activate win10.
It does this because when you upgraded to win10 from win7 it assigns a new product key to your validated copy of windows and puts the new validated win10 key onto your system. How convenient for micro$oft to not let you in on this fact. Since in fact they provide you with the ISO's to complete new install the OS should you choose, but they never even tell you that this will be an issue. Thank goodness they request the key before letting you proceed to formatting your disks.

M$ - "They'll figure it out... Well some of them."

As I see you don't have the win7 key you would be stonewalled if you decided to reinstall win7 as well.
So if you formatted that drive already for the install your going to be out of luck for the new OS or getting the old one back.
I take it micro$oft may just be counting on that scenario.

And this to WyomingKnott.
Yes it is true buying a used PC without the Product Registration Sticker on the machine can happen.
Some people do not understand the value or importance of that sticker... sometimes the sticker can be damaged... it is in fact just a sticker. But in any case it does happen quite a bit that you can find a valid system installed with a genuine valid copy of windows from the manufacturer and the key is either destroyed beyond use or the sticker be completely missing. It happens.

So here's the fix.
Yes you have validated your copy and received your new win10 product key, it's just that Micro$oft simply chose to make the decision of not letting you be able to have access to the new key easy.
In fact I have found no way to get the key from my systems without a third party freeware.

So your answer is as simple as produkey.
There may be a slew more out there that will also work the same. This was my first choice and it did the job perfectly.
On my systems it found my older win7 product key which I already had as well as my new validated win10 key that I needed to use for the reinstall of the newer OS. This was the only way I could get my new valid win10 key. This was the only way I was going to perform a clean install of win10 on my system. I figured it out the hard way.
Way to go micro$haft on not making this simple.

Produkey works and it's not a complicated procedure just run the program and get the info.
It's a small simple free product that fixes a giant corporations bad decision, lack of planning, simple oversight or what have you.
I suggest you copy save and print any and all information you are given so there is no mistake about the number letter sequence of your valuable keys.
Hang onto the win7 key as well when you get it as then you can reinstall win7 if it turns out you ever want to do so in the future.
It is still validated to your system as well.

I taped my OS install disks sleeve to the inside of my PC case access door and slid the paper with my product keys in the sleeve along with my win7 pro x64 and win10 pro x64 install disks.
This way everything is always with the system whenever I might need it.

I hope this info could be of some help to you Chris and you are able to get your new crisp install of win10 going on now.

drink water... drive on
-John

 

[Dragos Manea]

John, not true, i did this 7 times by now, upgraded from 7 on my notebook and from 8.1 on my main, after i upgraded, i let widows activate then i did a full wipe and reinstall windows 10 with iso downloaded from microsoft, when did ask me cd-key i just click ignore or do this later, after the install finishes windows activates automatically so no cd-key is requiered.

 

[madmatt30]

You don't need a product key once windows 10 has been activated previously.

The win 10 keys are generic ,there are only 4 different ones depending on variation of win 10.

Skip the key entry option on install & it should activate fine online once installed.

 

[justajohn]

Ahh I take back my statements then...
I erroneously believed that I had to have the key in hand to validate my registration.
I never took the option you chose as I figured it would leave me skrewed with no key and having to reinstall win7 and go through the procedure all over again...
I was wrong. And thanks for setting me straight on this one Dragos.
In any case it appears that should you want to get your win7 key this would still be a viable option for you Chris.

Take care and thanks again Dragos. Good info and good to know.
Sorry micro$haft.
-John

 

[Dragos Manea]

Ahh I take back my statements then...
I erroneously believed that I had to have the key in hand to validate my registration.
I never took the option you chose as I figured it would leave me skrewed with no key and having to reinstall win7 and go through the procedure all over again...
I was wrong. And thanks for setting me straight on this one Dragos.
In any case it appears that should you want to get your win7 key this would still be a viable option for you Chris.

Take care and thanks again Dragos. Good info and good to know.
Sorry micro$haft.
-John

No problem, i was incomplete with the info also, how madmatt said, you only need to upgrade to 10 only once, microsoft will see in the future that windows was previously activated and you can clean install 10 everytime now without worries, it will activate automatically.

 

[justajohn]

So to test the theory I attempted this on my brothers machine... Originally running win7 pro x64 just as my other 2 systems. Yes this is his own valid certified copy of Windows on this machine. I upgraded this machine for him myself a while back.
His computer specs

HP z400 workstation
Xeon x5675
24GB RAM
HD 7950 3GB
240GB SSD Boot OS Drive
1TB File System Storage Drive

I ran through the "request the update to win10" last night on his PC. Came back today and it was ready to begin the process. Ran through the installation completely and win10 was installed completely and validated on his system. I restarted his system and re-verified Windows was activated on his machine.
I should have used the keyfinder to get the new key just to be on the safe side... I decided to throw caution to the wind and say what the heck if I'm testing a theory I'll go all the way. I know how to fix it either way.

So I grabbed the ISO I burned for win10 pro x64 gotten from the Media Creation Option from Microsoft and popped it into his machine. I opted to do a clean install armed with my new knowledge.
I chose to format the SSD Drive 0 as per usual at this stage in an install. I noticed it had three partitions on it - 2 system reserves as well as the primary. It appears win10 created a new 500MB reserved partition along side the older existing reserved partition from win7. As I always do when clean installing windows I formatted each partition and deleted each partition then chose to create the new partition for the primary drive to the full SSD's space. It then created a secondary partition labeled System Reserved on the SSD as usual though at 500MB now as opposed to the 100MB I usually see with Win 7.

So here comes the critical moment... I skip the enter product key... load up the new install of windows... it prompted me after the whole "Hi we're getting stuff ready for you wait a sec" to enter my win10 key now... I skipped this option as well because I never grabbed the key and I wanted to see what would really go down...
it's not activated.

On the Activation screen it reads:

Windows

Edition: Windows 10 pro
Activation: Windows is not activated

Activate Windows
This product key doesn't work. You might need to get in touch with the store or company you bought windows from, or you can buy a new key from Microsoft

It has the option to enter a new product key and this info below

Your Product Key Info
Current product key: *****-3V66T

This is the same last 5 characters of my valid win10 on my own personel PC's.

So I attempted to re-enter the complete key which I have... it allows me to press next at which time I see this

We couldn't activate Windows
Windows can't activate with this product key. Go to Settings for more information.

entering my original win7 pro x64 key results in the expected result but I tried it anyways just to be thorough.

The product key you entered didn't work. Check the product key and try again, or enter a different one.
Error Code:0xc004f050

It's requesting a new key to activate and tells me

error code 0xC004C003 error description - the activation server determined the specified product key has been blocked.

Windows offers this solution

You upgraded to Windows 10 for free from Windows 7 Service Pack 1 or Windows 8.1 Update
If you upgraded to Windows 10 for free and ended up in a non-activated state, try following these steps:
1. Go to Start , then select Settings > Update & security > Activation.
2. If your activation state says Connect to the Internet to activate Windows, it might mean you're not connected to the Internet or the activation servers are busy.
3. If you're connected to the Internet, Windows 10 will be automatically activated. You can also select Activate to try and manually activate Windows. If the activation servers are busy, you might need to wait a while and then try again later.
4. If your activation state says Windows is not activated, select Go to Store, and check to see if a valid license for Windows is available for your device.
5. If a license isn't available, you'll need to buy Windows from the Store or go back to your previous version of Windows, make sure the previous version is activated, and then upgrade to Windows 10.
Note
⦁ If you continue experiencing problems activating Windows 10 after upgrading from an activated copy of Windows 7 SP1 or Windows 8.1 Update, contact ⦁ customer support.
⦁ For more info about how to go back to a previous version of Windows, see the section in ⦁ Recovery options in Windows 10.

I might be blind dense or both but I do not see where you find a way to get your copy verified through the store.

Windows also offers this as a solution

Windows 10
To start Product Activation:
1. Go to Start, then select Settings, choose Update & security, and then select Activation.
2. If your device is not activated, the Activate by phone option will be available.

There is no activate by phone option on my activation page.
So all this was done as a test to see would this work. I'm not doing this to be an ass and call people liars or be difficult... I'm doing this for my own peace of mind as I would think that a lot of people just may end up where I just did.
A lot of people don't know where to go next.
If I give people advice that may not bring about the desired end result then I feel I am part of the problem.

In my theory it is probably due to the fact that I erased the 500MB original partition which was created by the win10 upgrade that this did not work.
I am curious if in your complete win10 installs that worked Drago did you erase the System Reserved partitions or just formatted the Primary partition and install to it? It may be that the validation is done through the existing MBR Data? Just speculating here. I would really like to understand why my installation did not verify.

I will reinstall win7 pro x64 completely and fully update. Attempt to reinstall win10. Use produkey as this has saved me quite a headache in the past and if anything else gos foul I will post back results here.
Good bad or ugly.

I hope that the OP hasn't done anything rash and ended up in a bind. Guess we'll find out if we ever hear back from him.

The message here is the process is not fool proof. This fool is proof of this.
I am a bit foolish but I intend to be thorough and if you can point out where I skrewed this up please do.

The final verdict is Microsoft is not definitive in the proper sequence or even in giving you a solution which is a. relevant or b. even in existence if things go awry.
That is where I believe the crux of the issue lies.

All this said... I still am perfectly happy with my Win 7 Pro. LOL

To Chris OMahoney save yourself some issues and use a keyfinder. Save your existing win7 key and the new win10 one when you find them.

Oh and good luck.
-John

 

[madmatt30]

The new win10 key is generic though mate.
VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66TT - pro
TX9XD-98N7V-6WMQ6-BX7FG-H8Q99 - home

Don't know what's happened during your trial run but it should have activated fine - you did right removing partitions IMO - that's how a brand new clean install should be done.

 

[Dragos Manea]

@John, one reason i reverted to 8.1 on my notebook is because windows 10 is full of bugs so what hapent to you doesnt surprise me, and the only reason i have dual boot on my main is because i keep windows 10 for dx 12 games when they will be lunched and i currently use windows 8.1 for day-to-day use and ofc play games because right now windows 10 doesnt have any advantages for games. I have lot of headaches with origin (EA client) and windows 10 also. Long story short, full of bugs, avoid windows 10 for now.

 

[justajohn]

Well I would think madmatt that given the generic key the validation for the specified machine would require that microsoft somehow stores the serial number of my specific motherboard or some other hardware off the given system then checks this somehow against it's own validated systems database.
This is all speculation of course... I'm clueless to this generic key process... the pro key you listed is the key I have for both of my personal PC's so you are telling no lies.
I'm scratching my head here as well. I'll re-install win7 and try the procedure again this time I will do as I did the last 2 times I was successful and enter the key when prompted... Only other thing I was thinking is maybe I didn't leave the upgrade on the machine long enough before attempting the clean install. On my 2 systems I waited a few days before reinstalling from the ISO.
This time I will wait 24 hours or so after the upgrade before attempting the clean install.
Maybe it needs time to validate to the database? If that's even what's happening?
I did find this
Can I reinstall Windows 10 on my computer after upgrading?

Yes. Once you’ve upgraded to Windows 10 using the free upgrade offer, you will be able to reinstall, including a clean install, on the same device.

<<<You WON'T need a product key for RE-ACTIVATIONs *on the same hardware*. If you make a meaningful change to your hardware, you may need to contact customer support to help with activation. >>>

You’ll also be able to create your own installation media, like a USB drive or DVD, and use that to upgrade your device or reinstall after you’ve upgraded. To learn more about the installation process, click here.

The brackets, asterisks, capital letters and spaces I added for dramatic effect. I changed nothing on this specific hardware between the upgrade to the full install.

I dunno more on this tomorrow. LOL
-John

 

[justajohn]

Oh and just saw your post Drago... yes I have to agree.
Too much I have found is not working as I would think.
The crappy part is doesn't the free upgrade offer end in sometime the beginning of 2016? I haven't researched this myself. But I bet it won't be fixed before you have to start paying for it. I guess the best thing to do is jump on in and wait for it get fixed later. That sucks. It feels like Vista all over again. You'll be paying one way or the other I guess.
Ah well.
-John

 

[WyomingKnott]

This is strange. I had a Win7 machine. Upgraded to Win10. Now I can do a clean install of Win10 with only the blank drive that I'm going to install to in the machine. Microsoft seems to have a list of machines valid for Win10, and mine seems to be on it.

Your case sounds uncommon.

 

[madmatt30]

^ that's exactly how it 'should' work - ice done clean installs on 2 machines after originally doing the 8.1-10 upgrade path on both first - they both activated the second time absolutely fine here too.

Personally had no problem with win 10 at all apart from having yo reactivate my office 2010 via phone + the problem with the start menu only holding 563 entries (I have way more than that & the only way around this is to use classic shell or start8)

 

[cin19]

I has a "Windows is not activated" situation for one upgrading pc before, but somehow the window is activated in the next day I think maybe the microsoft service is busy something like that. So if the windows is still not activated, then call microsoft.

 

[USAFRet]

Due to the vast number of machines being upgraded to Win 10 and validated, sometimes a reinstall/clean install takes a day or two to activate.

After a specific machine has been Upgraded from a valid qualifying OS, Win 7 or 8.1) subsequent install on that machine...even a new drive in that machine....should not in any way require the license key, generic or not.

As said, it might take a day or two.

 

[justajohn]

Sorry it's taken a little while in me getting back to this.

I successfully upgraded my brothers machine and this time I did something different, though successful.

After the upgrade was finished I waited a few days. because as USAFRet pointed out it is probably a good idea.
I wanted to clean install afterwards anyway as a few things stopped functioning properly afterwards such as AMD Catalyst Control Center dissapearing completely and not being able to install and overall glitchy performance across the board.

This is where I changed things up.

I inserted the win10 installation disc before restarting the system so I could boot to the system installer on the disc when restarted.
In doing this it autoran the installer program right from the desktop. I followed the prompts to download updates knowing full well I already had updated to win10 but more because I was curious of the choices I would be given. When the updates had finished and after clicking yes to the disclaimer I was brought to the Ready To Install screen and was asked to recap that I wished to install win10 and keep existing windows settings, personal files and apps.
I intended on re-installing fresh so I was just curious if there would be an option for this here.
To my surprise under the Change What To Keep option on this screen I was further given these as options.
1. Keep Personal Files, Apps and Windows Settings.
2. Keep Personal Files only
3. Nothing: everything will be deleted including files, apps and settings when win10 is installed
It never dawned on me to try this before. I chose 3 knowing that it would re-install for me.
I am old school and much prefer being able to get the chance to verify the disk being installed on as well as be able to manually format partitions beforehand and just be able to make sure all is going as expected. Just the way I'm used to doing things. Old school.
But in any case it worked wonderfully. Never prompted me for a key as I bet it keeps all the valid machines credentials for itself as it completes this process. Unlike when I use the boot installer to first format the drive and then re-install to it with everything being wiped. So it's my belief that this is the easy effortless fix for the issue I had experienced.

So to summarize all this it would seem that -
after you choose to upgrade and it becomes time to download the update you should do so.
Then after windows has been upgraded to win10 and with the aid of the installation media you get from Microsoft using the Media Creation option.
Run the disk from the desktop of your existing updated win10 and follow the prompts until you get to the Ready To Install screen at which point you can choose the third option clean installing windows10 for you and not needing to worry about having to go through any weird issues like I just experienced.

The old school in me says I should boot into the installer as I know to do and as I am used to... but this worked.

So maybe it would be the better choice in this scenario to run the install from the disk straight from the desktop as it seems it would keep the filesystem for the most part intact as it requires for itself and this would possibly keep windows valid and active.

Again I can only deduce and speculate that this is the case.
I could be totally off.
Maybe it was just the fact I waited a couple days before doing the fresh install that matters.

Either way it installed AMD drivers for the GPU through windows itself oddly enough and everything works as it should now after the clean install.

If there was a prescribed fashion that microsoft detailed to make this happen without issue then there would be no need for crazy procedures and attempts that may or may not prove successful.
But new windows = new issues. We're all learning all over again.
Maybe someone will find the most proven path and outline it in a guide. It appears after the free upgrade to win10 offer is done it won't be necessary anymore.
Currently with so many people attempting blindly at this and even with some foreknowledge yet still failing to do it successfully this is a severe issue.

On a side not I installed a new purchased version of OEM win7 home x64 for a friend a few months ago on a newly updated rebuilt machine with no windows installed on it. That was my first experience with the OS or installing it.
It went exactly how it was supposed to go no issues first time and he still uses that machine no issues to this day. That was a full fresh install and not an attempt to upgrade. A purchased version installs without issue.

I can only hope this can help someone with their issues or at least save someone some steps.
Nothing guarantees success with this thing but persistence and patience is definitely helpful.

I hope Chris OMahony has a smoother go at it in any case.
-John