On 07/01/2019 13.29, Liam Proven wrote:
On 22/12/2018 05:07, Basil Chupin wrote:
No, you need the licence number for the copy of Windows when you are installing it.
This is not correct.
On *some* hardware *from participating vendors* Win10 can activate itself automatically.
That's interesting :-) Is vmware or virtualbox "participating"? ;-)
You can do a clean install of Win10 on *any* machine without a product key. It will install, install *critical* updates (only) and run, but product activation will fail.
As a result you cannot, for instance, customise the taskbar layout.
Right.
Additionally, a Win7, 8, or 8.1 key can be used to install and activate Win10. AFAIK *any* valid key will work.
Ah. I thought that had a time limit.
Additionally, the free upgrade programme is still available, so long as you turn on an accessibility tool, such as Windows Narrator or Magnifier. Then previous versions can be upgraded to 10 and will still function and will be pre-activated. (If they were activated in the first place, obviously.)
Ah
But you wrote in an earlier post is that you have Windows already installed on some machine but you may want to replace the HDD on which Windows is installed with a SSD. If so then what you can do is to use Clonezilla and CLONE the HDD with Windows onto a SSD and Windows will quite happily boot and run from the SSD.
This is not universal. It depends if other hardware components had been previously changed or replaced. Windows keeps a tally of changed hardware and when this exceeds a certain value that only Microsoft knows, it de-activates itself.
If you had previously upgraded some parts, e.g. your graphics adaptor, and then change the HD, it *might* require re-activation.
Oh :-( -- Cheers / Saludos, Carlos E. R. (from 42.3 x86_64 "Malachite" at Telcontar)