The process only checked that your copy was genuine.Īfter the upgrade is complete, you can reformat or even use a brand new hard drive and perform a clean installation of Windows 10. Windows 10 licenses are now stored in the cloud, therefore you won’t have to enter it manually ever again Tweet QuoteĪs you can see, the setup process didn’t need a product key to activate Windows. If everything checks, meaning if your copy is genuine and not a pirated version, then the activated servers will generate a Windows 10 license certificate, which is something the software giant calls “digital entitlement” and stores it with your unique ID and the edition you are trying to activate (Windows 10 Home or Pro). However, if you tried to use the same product key on another machine, the activation will simply fail.įast forward to Windows 10, the upgrade setup checks your current activation status and sends the report to Microsoft. If you needed to reinstall the operating system on the same hardware, using the same product key, the activation will happen automatically. In Windows 7 and Windows 8, when you activate for the first time, the unique ID calculated using your hardware was stored on the activation database together with your product key. The identification was not reversible and not tied to any Microsoft service, as such it couldn’t be used to identify you. The activation process can be a little confusing, so let’s go a step back and go over how the Windows 7 and Windows 8 activation process works.įor years, the process to activate a copy of the operating system was based on a unique ID that was generated by measuring the hardware in your PC.

It’s worth pointing out that OEM activation and the process of activating value licensing copies didn’t change, everything here works the same. This is a significant step forward coming from previous version of Windows that required you to manually enter the product key on each new installation.Įven though, this is a good news, many users were caught by surprise, as many people proceeded to move to Windows 10 doing a clean install, instead of performing an in-place upgrade first, and it caused the activation to fail.

Perhaps the biggest change is that users won’t have to enter a product key anymore after successfully upgrading to Windows 10, as the activation status will get stored in the cloud. With the new activation process not only people can upgrade easily, but it also makes simpler to perform a clean installation – of course, only after you have properly upgraded.

With the new version, Microsoft is changing the product key activation process when upgrading to Windows 10. Although many users had issues trying to activate Windows 10, this is the first version of the operating system that fixes the shortcomings with product activation.

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