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Thread: Win 10 - Swapping/changing product keys?

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    Win 10 - Swapping/changing product keys?

    Hello all,

    I have a Netbook running Win10 Pro and a Tablet running Win10 Home. I want to swap the product keys so that my tablet is Win10 Pro as I use this more than the Netbook.

    From looking online it is an easy enough process to upgrade from Home -> Pro using the change product key within Settings. But would the same process work for a downgrade?

    Also is doing this an easy enough process not involving a repair/clean install? I really can not be bothered wiping two machines

    Thanks


    Solved - It worked!
    As some of the replies said, if these were simply new Win10 product keys there would have been OEM issues.

    However, the netbook was upgraded from Win7 and the tablet upgraded from Win8. Therefore the new Win10 products keys were issued by Microsoft and not stuck by OEM limitations.

    I simply done a clean install of Win10 on both using their new product keys. The Tablet, now running Win10 Pro from the netbook hit a snag by not authenticating the Win10 product key. A quick phone call to MS said try the Win7 key to verify my Win10 key. Odd, but it worked.

    Advice from their tech support is to keep old product keys used in the Win10 upgrade. I assumed the old ones were deleted and replaced with a Win10 code, this not true and are still used to confirm your Win10 entitlement.
    Last edited by caracortada_uk; 04-04-2016 at 11:29 AM.

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    DILLIGAF GoNz0's Avatar
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    Re: Win 10 - Swapping/changing product keys?

    If it is an embedded licence then you can't do it as they wont activate. and afaik you would have to reinstall to get pro to home.

    Capitalization is the difference between helping your Uncle Jack
    off a horse and helping your uncle jack off a horse.

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    Re: Win 10 - Swapping/changing product keys?

    Quote Originally Posted by GoNz0 View Post
    If it is an embedded licence then you can't do it as they wont activate. and afaik you would have to reinstall to get pro to home.
    Damn, i hadnt thought of an embedded licence.

    The netbook will be fine, it was running XP which i then upgraded to Win7 Pro using a spare key from a dead PC. I then took the free Win10 Pro.

    But the tablet is a Dell. Originally the pre-installed Win8 then upgraded to the free Win10. So since it has been upgraded to Win10 I assume embedded licence will not be an issue as it is now using a separate key from MS.

    As for a re-install for Pro -> Home, do you think that would be a full clean install or just a re-install using the "upgrade" method and keeping files/settings intact?

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    DILLIGAF GoNz0's Avatar
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    Re: Win 10 - Swapping/changing product keys?

    not sure if you can upgrade pro to home tbh, you would need an ei.cfg at least so you can pick the install you want to push as windows will use the BIOS key 1st.

    Capitalization is the difference between helping your Uncle Jack
    off a horse and helping your uncle jack off a horse.

  5. #5
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    Re: Win 10 - Swapping/changing product keys?

    Your licenses are *very* likely to be OEM, meaning that they're tied to the hardware that they were provisioned with. Swapping isn't an option in this case.

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