WDS and Win 10 Licensing

[Bankesy]

Hello

 

This is more of an information seeking post than anything.

 

I'm hoping somebody out there can explain the implications of using WDS to deploy Win 10 in relation to licensing and I have the following questions:

 

1. Can WDS deploy Win 10 to PCs running Win 7? At the moment we have to upgrade our Win 7 PCs using the Win 10 Media Creation tool and then run a new flat install of Win 10, how is this affected by using WDS?

2. With Dell do you have to use their branded media license? Will using WDS to deploy Win 10 strip this information out? How do you put it back if it does?

 

Any help would be good, thank you in advance.

[dapaulio]

Not particularly an expert in licensing. It bores the hell out of me and I will do my best to leave it to someone else if I can help it.

Firstly what sort of organisation are you?

This is my understanding of our licensing with in a school

We are a school and have an ees agreement where we are issued a kms license key for each operating system to install on to a kms host server eg one for win 7 and one for win 10. This will then license all the computers that are connected to the domain. Ees agreement works on Full Time staff (FTE) which you can get from your business manager.

[Bankesy]

Hello

 

Yeah I don't work in a school currently but have done for years up until recently so think that gives me the right to still seek help here : )

 

So it's just business licensing and I don't believe we a KMS implemented anywhere.

 

The main concern is that with the manual upgrade from 7 to 10 it obviously detects that this is allowed but what happens when using WDS to push Win 10 to a Win 7 PC? If it treats it as a new install then I imagine a Win 10 license would be required.

 

Thank you

[dapaulio]

It is my understanding that anyone is allowed here and i welcome you, however you may find the majority of threads and the knowledgebase is orient around the education sector which can differ significantly on what the correct advice should be given, therefore may not be best place to seek answers to your questions.

 

I think i understand your question. let me get this straight. you want to deploy a windows 10 image using the windows 7 OEM license and whether it is possible. in my opinion this would be a new install and not eligible for the free Windows 10 Upgrade

Your reason for not obtaining a VLK is probably due to the fact that it seems senseless to pay for a w10 license when you have valid OEM licenses that grant you a free upgrade to W10. am i correct?

 

Whilst i understand deployment would save you time over manual installation it is my understanding that WDS works in a domain environment using a VLK only. you may be able to deploy windows 10 on a generic key and manually enter the W7 OEM license displayed on the COA but that would take just as long and imagine you would need to manually activate through MS.

 

Whilst a good way to save money i imagine MS have considered this and made it is illegal by their understanding to deploy using an OEM license.

 

I hope i have understood your question

 

EDIT: whilst writing this i stumbled across this http://download.microsoft.com/download/3/D/4/3D42BDC2-6725-4B29-B75A-A5B04179958B/Reimaging.pdf

 

Reimaging is the copying of software onto multiple devices from one standard image. Reimaging rights are granted to all Microsoft Volume Licensing customers. Under these rights, customers may reimage original equipment manufacturer (OEM) or full packaged product (FPP) licensed copies using media provided under their Volume Licensing agreement.

Edited June 1, 2016 by dapaulio

[looin]

You can check the key that is stored in the bios by running the following command: wmic path SoftwareLicensingService get OA3xOriginalProductkey

If you then enter the key in the activation screen you can activate it.

[Bankesy]

Hello

 

Thanks for the edit, I'll keep that article although it seems to relate more to having volume licensing in the first place.

 

Looin: if I've understood your post correctly that command will give us the key on the Win 7 PC then after we deploy Win 10 to it we just use that same key?

[looin]

Bankesy: That is it. If you don't know your serial of Win 7 and you already did a clean install of Win 10 you can recover the key from the BIOS with this command

 

I got this from a Microsoft Employee after I did a clean install of Windows 10 on a new HP laptop without checking the serial first. So I couldn't activate Win 10 because I didn't have the serial and I couldn't reinstall Win7 because I didn't have the serial. So I called Microsoft and they explained that the key is stored in the Bios and that you can just find it by entering the command. If you then enter it as a serial in Win 10 it will activate without any issues.

[mtillbrook]

We have been fighting with this recently. The most annoying thing we have come up against is that sysprep won't work on an upgraded machine!

 

We have just imaged about 50 machines and the way we have gone about it was to image a Win7 image and then, after using the Win10 media creation tool, created a load of bootable dvd's and usb sticks with the Win upgrade iso on them and gone and run the upgrade manually.

It hasnt taken as long as it sounds like it should have to be fair!