Cloning Win 10 that was upgraded from 7 OEM

[Alis_Klar]

Hi,

 

Have just bought 5 Lenovo e50's with Windows 7 Pro OEM on. Have used windows update to upgrade one of them to 10. Will I be able to take an image of Windows 10 and successfully send this image out to the other 5 laptops? Will Windows 10 activate correctly on the other 4?

 

Am using acronis.

 

BTW the E50's are horrible (bad trackpad and not the usual Lenovo build quality) don't even think about buying any!

Edited May 5, 2016 by Alis_Klar

[Arthur]

Will Windows 10 activate correctly on the other 4?

Unfortunately not. You'll have to upgrade each laptop separately.

[Chrisbf1]

i am sure i read somewhere that if you got the key from the windows 7 machines you can input that in to activate. i have never done it so would be keen to see if it works. might need to use one of these key finders before you image the other 4

 

Activation in Windows 10 - Windows Help

During the free upgrade, you can use a valid Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 product key to activate Windows 10(Version 1511 or higher). The following types of product keys are supported:

 

• Product keys included in the packaging or the Certificate of Authenticity (COA) attached to your PC that came installed with Windows.
   
  
• Product keys included in the confirmation email that you received after buying Windows from an online retailer.
   
  
• Product keys included in the box that the Windows DVD came in.
   
  
• Product keys that you bought using Windows Anytime Upgrade or Get Genuine Windows.
   
  
• If you bought a Windows 8.1 Pro Pack product key, you can use it to activate Windows 10 Pro.
  

[h=3]Note[/h]

• Some Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1product keys can’t be used to activate Windows 10, such as product keys for volume licensing, including Generic Volume Licensing Keys (GVLK) and Multiple Activation Keys (MAK), and Windows 7 Enterprise, Windows 8 Enterprise and Windows 8.1 Enterprise.
  

 

 

To see if your device is running Windows 10 Version 1511 or higher, select the Start http://res1.windows.microsoft.com/resbox/en/6.4/main/851aefc6-d9e7-41b6-a160-2a5e45499b33_17.png button, then select Settings > System> About, and make sure that Version shows 1511 or higher.

To use your Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 product key to activate Windows 10:

• Select the Start http://res1.windows.microsoft.com/resbox/en/6.4/main/851aefc6-d9e7-41b6-a160-2a5e45499b33_17.png button, then select Settings > Update & security > Activation.
   
  
• Select Change product key, then enter the 25-character product key.
  

 

After Windows 10 has been activated, a digital entitlement will be given to your device based on the product key that you entered. This means that you’ll no longer need to enter a product key to activate Windows 10 on this device.

On some devices that came pre-installed with Windows 8 or Windows 8.1, the product key is provisioned in the device firmware. On these devices, the product key will be verified during setup, and then the appropriate edition of Windows 10will be installed.

[jmak]

I believe that if you run the in place upgrade on each one you would be able to image them afterwards, as they get licenced by their "electronic fingerprint" ie when that machine tries to activate in the future, MS recognises that it has a valid licence.

 

From my understanding, your base image would have to come from a "clean image". You can get a clean image from MS and you should be able to install it straight onto one of the machines, as the OEM licence should be in the BIOS and it will activate automatically. Alternatively, the upgraded machine should have registered as having a valid licence with MS and you can install the clean windows image onto that machine.

 

Download from here:

 

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO

 

Happy (well, not offended) to be told I've got it wrong.

[Alis_Klar]

 

Download from here:

 

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO

 

 

 

.

 

Does this media creation tool pick an ISO on demand depending on what type of licence for 7/8.1 that you have on the machine that you created the licence on?

 

E50's have the newer type of COA sticker which has no activation key on and has UEFI BIOS so I guess it is stored encrypyed in the BIOS and will activate.

[jmak]

Does this media creation tool pick an ISO on demand depending on what type of licence for 7/8.1 that you have on the machine that you created the licence on?

 

E50's have the newer type of COA sticker which has no activation key on and has UEFI BIOS so I guess it is stored encrypyed in the BIOS and will activate.

It's supposed to - it worked for me on a Dell machine I own at home with pro OEM installed. The download includes both SKUs. I took the precaution of extracting the licence code from the BIOS before I started... If you have that, you should be able to phone the Microsoft activation line if necessary.

[Alis_Klar]

Just booted one of the laptops from a cloned image and it activated ok. Source image was upgraded using the Windows update method. OEM Windows 7 Pro. Destination machine was exact same model.

 

As a test will try a clean install too and post back results.

 

P.S. Just to make sure are people aware of the hold down shift trick whilst clicking shutdown in windows 8-10 to ensure a full shutdown rather than fast hibernate is performed.

 

This Also works

shutdown /s /t 0

Some machines will not let you boot from external devices or enter BIOS unless F key is pressed during cold boot.

 

On the E50 you also have to press Fn+the F key which is an extra hurdle!!

Edited May 6, 2016 by Alis_Klar

[mavhc]

I noticed that Win10 will say it's activated for a while if drive is moved to a new machine, so make sure you test after it's been on for an hour or so

 

I upgraded a new win7pro slic'd install to win10, downgraded, and moved to next machine, over and over. Now I can image win 10 pro via wds with no key and it's fine