Rolling Back From Windows 10 To Your Older OS Appears Problematic

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@agentbb007
OEM :
OEM versions of Windows are identical to Full License Retail versions except for the following:
- OEM versions do not offer any free Microsoft direct support from Microsoft support personnel
- OEM licenses are tied to the very first computer you install and activate it on
- OEM versions allow all hardware upgrades except for an upgrade to a different model motherboard
- OEM versions cannot be used to directly upgrade from an older Windows operating system
What happens if I change my motherboard?
As it pertains to the OEM licenses this will invalidate the Windows 10 upgrade license because it will no longer have a previous base qualifying license which is required for the free upgrade. You will then have to purchase a full retail Windows 10 license. If the base qualifying license (Windows 7 or Windows 8.1) was a full retail version, then yes, you can transfer it.
Click to expand...

Even with an OEM license you are allowed to replace the motherboard should the original board fail. The catch is you have to use a replacement part specified by the OEM in case that original board model is no longer available. 😉 😉

Now is Microsoft changing the OEM rules that you can't replace the motherboard should it fail?
 
There are already enough marketing shenanigans circling windows 10, that we are surely assured of another XP hold-out debacle. Windows 7 has already proven itself, so my advise to XP users upgrade to windows 7 or 10. My advise to windows 7 users - hold on to your windows 7 OS for another 10 years; or at least until Microsoft stops its vehement arrogant stance against Windows users.

I am on a limited monthly internet data budget as I live in a rural area, and ISPs think it is OK to punish us for where we live with poor.internet service. Now Microsoft has decided that the non-PRO version of Windows will not be able to disable the windows update service. A 10GB monthly limit does not allow for random patch updates, as these must be carefully scheduled to fit monthly data budgets. Apparently forcing rural customers who have limited monthly internet budgets to download multi gigabyte updates, does not concern Microsoft. Microsoft will be sued if they do not allow us to disable windows updates, and allow us to schedule these updates as monthly data budgets permit.

How is all this posturing any better than the Windows 8 debacle? One was fired for that crap product, and it looks like another will shortly be fired for the debacle of Windows 10.

Microsoft are you listening - you are about to be hit with a 2x4 up the side of your head.

 
Next point that needs to be answered is "When is Microsoft going to start charging a subscription fee for Windows 10?"
Steve Ballmer is the one that brought that up. It still appears that this is the long term plan, although Microsoft is not talking about it since people would dump Windows 10 immediately, and go back to what they were on before this.
 

Actually, it is not. The article specifically states that you may not be able to reinstall from scratch using installation media, and says nothing about disk imaging software.

Activation codes are stored in your computer based on the hardware configuration that exists when you activate. I have reimaged systems from time to time without hardware changes and have never been asked to reactivate.
I have also upgraded hardware from time to time, and sometimes, depending on the extent of the change, I have had to reactivate.

Once activated, the system will not require reactivation unless there is a significant hardware change.

Besides, if I restore from an image, it will be within a reasonable time.
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I actually forgot to consider making a virtual copy of your OS to use later. This might work, but Microsoft might check the activation code when you are doing updates afterwards and de-activate your copy of Windows. It isn't certain at this time.
 


Chris is write about the abilities to use an OEM vs. Retail license, but that doesn't apply after you upgrade to Windows 10. We don't know for certain if Microsoft is going to disable the old activation keys (though it seems very likely they will after you upgrade), however, we do know for certain that you will not be able to upgrade to Windows 10 on your current system, build an entirely new Skylake system, and then move Windows 10 to it. Some type of virtual image may get around this, but you certainly won't be able to do a clean install. If you want Windows 10 for free when you build your Skylake system, you are best to wait, install Windows 7 on it first, and the upgrade that system. If you do it on your current system you will not be able to move it to the Skylake system, regardless if your license is currently OEM or Retail.
 
I've been running Win 10 for a while on the insider program. It's better in every conceivable way versus Win 8.1 and Win 7. There is a fellow in this thread who has a very valid concern with the 3 pack related to what happens to his licenses if he doesn't upgrade them and MS should 100% address that. However generally speaking I see zero reason to roll it back on any of the machines I've upgraded so far. It's been on my main machine 5 weeks and 2 others since the release.
 
So I gave Win10 a go for two days(which is way longer than the 15 mins I gave Win8)...
And I'm back to win7 already.
The reasons are numerous:
Right off the bat 3 programs were broken... 2 were games and the other was a utility program, reinstalls did not fix them. The games were no big deal but it seems they died because of a problem with the official Win10 AMD driver(Star Trek Online was one).
Next was basic disk drive functionalty and the UI... I wanted to change a 8gig flash drive from FAT32 to NTFS. Sure, I could format it FAT32 all day but to revert to NTFS was broken. Disk management should be the way to go but it was buried and I had to use the search cortana to find the normal control panel to get to disk management... This adds about 3 more steps to a normally 6-9 step process...

Next, installation of win10 took forever(2 hours). No real big deal but still....

Win10 still feels like a tablet OS... There are switches for turning on tablet crap everywhere...

What happened to start/taskbar customization as a few test websites/blogs tooted as the main reason for going win10? They are gone in the release version...

Finally it felt like the OS wanted me to buy something thru the app store... No thanks.

All of this plus what is described in this article of having no point of return after 30 days and alot more forced me to roll back to 7...

Oh and I hate the squarish UI... Reminds me of win3.11....
 
This will likely get removed, but this is a great way to encourage piracy of your OS's. However, you'll be able to get a global key legitimately for around 30 bucks or less in a few months.
 
I have a Lenovo laptop with the Windows 7 Pro OEM license. My storage is 111GB SSD. Installed Windows 10 and my free space shrank to less than 10% of the disk capacity. Went to disk cleanup, checked everything even "previous windows instalation"(witch take u to 9GB) and clicked OK. Warning came Up: "you wont be able to roll back to previous windows version if you delete this". I clicked OK, and now Tom's writes this article... Bummer...
 
Checked my Win 7 key prior to installing free copy of Win 10 and noted it
Re checked after Win 10 upgrade - and indeed, the key has changed
It seems Win 10 upgrade generates a new key, Although I haven't tested to see if my Win 7 key is now invalid
Pending further investigation,
I was rather surprised by this,as through the install there was no mention of this change,and no way to record the new key should i need a clean install on the same machine which makes sense if MS secured the free Win 10 key to the hardware profile

 
I've been pouring over everything I could possibly read on the topic of Windows 10 Upgrade activation since I had to upgrade three times in unique scenarios that all ended up with the same result. First candidate, my Gateway that came with Windows 7 Home Premium, most recent install I used the Key on the sticker with a vanilla Win 7 disc, activated w/o fuss but previously the phone system was needed. Second, my mother's Asus Transform w/ Win 8.1. Lastly my desktop with a fresh Win7 installed the other day using a Windows 7 Upgrade 3 Pack Key & same vanilla disc as w/ my Gateway. Usually when I use that 3-pack key it wants to see an established Windows XP /Vista install at time of upgrade, and I might still have to phone in, but it just let me install and activate with no fuss... that was unusual. Windows 7 Activation has seemed much more lax in recent weeks.

After all three were upgraded I noticed all three had the same generic Windows 10 Home key. So now I'm assuming the key, in the case of an upgrade, is just a quick reference to the status of the OS being an in-place upgrade. I get the feeling Microsoft will put you through some trivial hoops after July 2016 if you want to flex the benefits of a Retail 7/8 license but for now they're just herding people through the cattle chute, noting motherboard serials as we go for reinstall on the same hardware.

I really doubt anyone's Windows 7/8 key is being invalidated after the 10 upgrade. You could probably dual-boot 7 & 10 if you felt the need.
 
MY Copy of 7 has been through tons of hardware upgrades. and now if i move it over to windows 10 i am screwed? Well i wont be upgrading to 10 then. Well maybe with an unused windows 8 key i have from a windows 7 upgrade i did in the past.
 

Thanks for the reply, so indeed this upgrade key turns my retail windows 7 license into effectively an OEM Win 10 license? Good gosh I'm glad I haven't been picked to update yet because I'm building a new skylake machine when it's released and was planning on using my current key. So for now I will keep Win7 and install Win7 on my skylake machine then if I feel like Win10 is stable enough do the upgrade, but still pains me a bit to turn a perfectly good Win7 key into an OEM Win10 upgrade key...
 
Urgh, my copy is OEM.... Probably going to wait a few months before this main computer gets the update...
Click to expand...
just to clarify, it being oem is not really a problem unless you think you will want to roll back. But your getting a new OS for free, so you can take advantage of that, I certainly will be. In the case you have to replace your motherboard or other hardware due to a hardware failure, Microsoft should validate your license, even if its an OEM copy. I have never had any problem with this if you call up their support line and get it re-activated with the new motherboard.
 
Going to wait for my new GPU before I try Windows 10 out... has anyone noticed any performance differences?
Windows 10 would be slower because of Cortana and all of the new stuff, right?
 


For me Windows 10 performs about the same as Windows 7, however 10's boot time is longer. I have not enabled Cortana yet, but I'm in no rush for that.
I think the main performance differences will be with programs using DX12, until then I doubt it will be much different. Neither my laptop or desktop will be able to take advantage of DX12 unless I upgrade but I probably wont bother until the next gen of GPU's. This current gen, with a few exceptions, has been underwhelming.

One annoying thing about Windows 10 is the "Start" menu, in the "All Apps" section there seems to be no sub-folders so some of my programs have tons of shortcuts to manuals and things like that listed that were tucked neatly away into sub-folders.
 


Microsoft is a smart company. They know that if they do not cancel the old keys, people will just use them on another system, and they have never allowed you to use 2 systems off of one key. If the old keys are not invalid already, they will be in 30 days.

And then they will have everyone on the hook for the future of Windows by Subscription.

You think I'm nuts? Read Windows 10 marks the end of 'pay once, use forever' software
 
Well, I'm back on Windows 7 already and it feels like home, lol. It starts so much faster, but the reason I reverted back was my programs. Everything seemed to work Ok but then I tried to play Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 with my Nephew and that ended my trial phase. The laptop I play on can run both those games on Medium smoothly, however, in Windows 10 on Low settings the computer was brought to a crawl. Considering Blizzard games are the main ones I play, this was a deal breaker. I tried Blizzards tech forum and it's a common and unaddressed problem.

If they get it all sorted out I might try again, but this plus the question of my 3-pack Win7 HP license, the reversion seemed to be the best option for me.
 


Glad to help, lol. But this is why I put it on my laptop, it doesn't have anything important on it. My desktop however would be a huge problem if something went wrong and I had to start fresh. What is odd is everything seemed to work rather well until I got to Blizzard games.

At least the reversion went smoothly and a lot quicker than I thought it would.
 
I said almost 4 months ago that Windows 10 would not be ready for prime time on July 29th. And it wasn't. And probably won't be for at least 3 months, and probably about 6 months.

But until Microsoft tells us what we are going to have to pay for this free update (nothing is ever free), then I am sitting tight. I believe they intend to give us Windows 10 if we take it within a year, and then the next time we change motherboards or systems, we probably will have to agree to a subscription. Most likely a monthly or annual fee to continue to get support.
 
"I am on a limited monthly internet data budget as I live in a rural area, and ISPs think it is OK to punish us for where we live with poor.internet service. Now Microsoft has decided that the non-PRO version of Windows will not be able to disable the windows update service. A 10GB monthly limit does not allow for random patch updates, as these must be carefully scheduled to fit monthly data budgets. Apparently forcing rural customers who have limited monthly internet budgets to download multi gigabyte updates, does not concern Microsoft. Microsoft will be sued if they do not allow us to disable windows updates, and allow us to schedule these updates as monthly data budgets permit.

How is all this posturing any better than the Windows 8 debacle? One was fired for that crap product, and it looks like another will shortly be fired for the debacle of Windows 10.

Microsoft are you listening - you are about to be hit with a 2x4 up the side of your head.

[/quote]

I'm not sure how much of what MS has done in this upgrade was deliberate and how much was simply due to software engineers and managers living in an ivory tower on a tall hill, meaning they live in areas were fast Internet speeds are the rule, not the exception, and work for a company that probably has the fastest Internet and network connections available. They are so used to all that bandwidth that they do not comprehend people that live in the hinterland (flyover country) were all this infrastructure doesn't exist. I live in a small town that has a small regional phone company and while they do offer DSL, it's slow compared to what's available with AT&T in the town five miles away (and ours is much more expensive). It took me at least 8 hours to download the Win 10 update. I would have gladly paid for an upgrade disk if they had offered one, it was so painful downloading. Trying to put all software purchases, updates and upgrades online is great if you have fast broadband access but not so much for those with slow connections and I think that the MS people in charge of Windows 10 just don't get this. If anyone at Microsoft happens to read this post (doubtful) I wish they'd pass this on to the powers that be as a reminder, otherwise they're not working towards providing those with slow connections the best service available
 
Wow a whole heap of BS here, lets start
1) linux is NOT the answer, it wasn't 10 years ago, it still isn't now, don't tell us about it, just use it already, or dont? we don't care.
2) windows does not just de-activate you may have issues RE-activating but never a deactivation (apart from with the usuals - hardware changes, corruption etc)
3) product keys do NOT get banned/disabled/bricked they just require PHONE activation (Windows 8/10 use "SLUI 4" - google it, please)
4) ~80% of all Windows 7 computers use a SLIC activation method - they dont actually use the product key on the sticker on the unit, just a common OEM key for each vendor, so they cant actually block those keys since there all the same for each manafacturer (Dell HP etc)
5) Microsoft stated free upgrades for one year from 7/8 to 10 - they cant just take away your windows licence (ban/disable it whatever) - you will still have the original licence to activate, just no 10 activation after a year (as in after a reinstall you cant activate it - just do a refresh)
 
I'm about to replace my 8GB of memory to 16GB (I got a really good price on it so why pass it up!). Now I read this and while I suspect memory won't be a problem, who knows for sure exactly what hardware changes will create the problems addressed here. My biggest gripe if it does is that I just spend nearly a full day getting the Win 10 upgrade (slow DSL in my area), installing it (with the slow download of updates on the initial installation), then software updates and upgrades, and finally personalizing and learning to navigate the system (probably the easiest part but it still usually takes time). I don't even want to think about having to call Microsoft for a new activation code in the event that Win 10 deactivates. At least this is a forewarning of possible problems; just wish it had been a few days earlier BEFORE I updated my system as I would have waited until the hardware upgrade was completed.
 
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