Windows 10 Activation Explained - Win 10 Wrangling 

Just a quick note to the many people saying 'windows 10 is free': "I didn't pay for it" != Free.

As a non English native speaker, I really appreciate how clearly you speak, making easy to understand everything you say. Thanks for that and for all the interesting topics.

I really appreciate how clearly you speak, making easy to understand everything you say.. Thanks for your details

I nearly bought windows 10. I'm glad i watched your video and had an old laptop laying around. thanks mate.

Hey man, great presentation style and voice, very clear, very sensible advice. Subbed!

Very informative concise and clear, a pleasure to listen to you, without the 100 words a second speed that a lot of videos seem to have.

Well explained Mate! I was a technical systems analyst for Windows XP and am exactly one of those guys that are relevant to your presentation. I've been building and rebuilding machines and dodging around the product key matter for a couple of decades now. Yet, I still gleaned a few important and of very helpful bits of information. Great job! Thanks!

Great idea of the old computer pieces on the wall ... I might do the same in my office ... it's a great idea !!!

I have several Windows 8 laptops that I want to install Windows 10 on (sadly Windows 7 isn't really an option anymore). I was under the impression there was no upgrade path from Windows 8 to Windows 10. This information is very helpful and I've made notes. Thanks so much. I also want to commend you for the quality video. You have organized and explained everything meticulously. On the basis of this I have subscribed to your channel. Very well done sir.

Note for Dell computers issued with Windows 7: You have a Windows 7 Home edition, but eventually want to upgrade to Windows 10 Professional. Dell allows you to install ANY edition of their OEM version of Win7. If your computer came with W7 Home, you can instead install W7 Professional, if you possess the Dell OEM Win7 re-installation DVD. The same Dell OEM Win7 product key will work with Hone, Pro, Ultimate. These Dell OEM DVDs come with Dell PCs of the Win7 era (2009 - 2018) for free. Just get the Dell OEM W7 Pro version of the DVD. This allows you to go from Dell OEM Win7 Home to Pro. That, in turn, will be detected during the Win7 to Win10 upgrade process and allow you to automatically upgrade to Win10 Pro, even though you originally started with W7 Home.

This video was very helpful to me as i found a win 7 key on my old 2011 notebook and was able to activate my win 10 with it. Many thanks!!!

Nice one , straight to the point , what we are is advertisers of windows 10 when we crack it.

Well explained, I will refer my customers to your explanation when I get asked that question for the millionth time. "Just go and watch Windows 10 wrangling on Adamant IT on YTube"

This was a very helpful video. I thought I knew it all but I learned a few new things today about windows activation Thank you!

Your English is extremely clear for USA people. Thanks for the Windows 10 information.

Glad I found this channel and this video. Using a Win7 PC ("it works, why change" was the thought) but am now jumping to a Ryzen 7 from an I3 2120 so may as well upgrade OS too. Also have a failed 8.1 install key that I can now use. Wow, just saved £25 on an OEM key from a non-eBay key seller site. Thanks !

Great Video, very informative. Keep up the good work.

Ah, I've been buying those cheap $2 Windows 10 product keys on eBay for years, and wondered where they came from. Thanks for the info!

Thank you mate I found a Windows 7 professional product key from another computer the motherboard was broken I entered the product key in Windows 10 professional and it was activated by this product key thank you I installed Windows 10 on a computer that I assembled myself

really explanatory ty for the vod!

Great video explanation, much appreciate!

A very informative presentation. Thanks.

That was a great video and thank you. Greetings from Arizona.

Thanks for the video and I love your MoBo artworks on the wall. I was aware of the fact that all you need a valid install key from any version of Windows and do not need to pay 90 bucks. Pity they don't tell you about this and will gladly let you pay the $90 if you are unaware of this fact

Awesome! Thanks for the tips!

I am a technician, this is all absolutely true. It blew my mind when I learned this after years of doing this!

This channel deserve a lot more subscribers. I'm on the wagon now...

Thanks for sharing this information 👍🏼

I had a laptop, the hard drive died. I replaced it with an SSD and installed Windows 10 onto it. It activated itself. Later, the laptop died, and I reused the SSD in my current PC build, and even though every part was different from the laptop aside from the SSD, Windows 10 activated on the same license and I didnt have to reinstall anything, just new drivers. I thought that was crazy. Good vid. Good info. Thanks!

You can set your Windoze backdrop on the non activated install of Windoze 10. Open an image, right click it and select set as then set as background. Thumbs up on the video.

Well explained. Cheers. Last but not least, there is a way that you skipped mentioning. There is a script (or more than one scripts or batch files) that activates Windows 10. Yet a different script exists that activates Office Professionals, and more. Grateful to those who cherished those great works for people with low and no budgets. 😄 😁 😆

This guy deserves the nobel peace prize! No question man!

Wow. Didn't know that about Windows 8. It actually has the key installed in the BIOS. Thanks for that.

Well now all that makes sense, been wondering what the heck’s with the Win 10 licensing - makes sense from the Microsoft side as well. Very well explained, thanks!

Great tips, where did you learn so much? Excelentes consejos, donde aprendiste tanto. Saludos desde Ecuador.

great explanation!

Well explained, i like your channel, you're a lot like me but you have a longer beard, i've been in the repair biz for 15 years and id wager i'm older than you but i've gained some good tips from your channel and where youve spoken about things i already know, like this, you've echoed my opinions. Good job and keep up the channel!

Great information Bro. I like too. Now I know how to upgrade my windows home to Pro version without spending money.. Thanks a lot..

I built a pc last august and managed to get windows key off amazon UK for 3.95 and it worked.

I like what you did to the wall

Thanks, Very useful

Yo thanks for the tip on old windows 7 keys that a great one fo sho

you just saved me money thanks brother

liking the beard! Thank you for sharing very useful info.

no questions just a big THANKS :)

I got two of those $15 keys ages ago, they work great.

Great Video l hope you do one for windows server soon !! building my first home server !

6:25 Back in the old days with XP, you could activated same key through internet each 3 months, was it less then 3 months, you had to use the activation by phone option. You could activate the same XP license key through internet for a maximum of 24 times. So after activation a XP license key through internet, after 3 months, you could activate that same key on another computer without any problem. After the support for XP has ended, there is no 3 months waiting period, and a valid XP license can be unlimited times activated. I guess that with Windows 10 activation, there shall also be a certain time period between each activation and a maximum amount of activations.

ty great info didnt know thanks

In the past when I paid more for Windows than I do now, they weren't making as regular meaningful improvements (or bugs) as today, whereas now we can pay little to get a license and volunteer our information for them to improve their services, we do get lots of features that was previously unimaginable.

Much appreciated!!!

Awesome channel and great video! I didn’t know that about win 7 licenses. Very handy. Now can we have some w4r3z and c0d3z please??!

Also, after you register you windows you can link it with your Microsoft account, so if later on you fully upgrade your PC you can migrate the license to the new machine, since it is bound to account and not machine it self. (but wont be able to register on the old computer again)

Nice to know Geddy Lee is now into IT

Do these key recycling techniques work for installing in a VM, VirtualBox, for example?

You can change the wallpaper in unactivated Windows 10. Just find the image you want as the wallpaper on your computer, right click on it and pick the 'Set as desktop background option.' Many OEMS had the activation key locked in the bios during the Windows 7 days as well. There was a well known bios modding forum that would add the key information from say a Dell bios and add it into one from another company, thereby giving you a officially activated 'Dell' PC.

NICE ONE DUDE!!! - YOU JUST ADDED MORE GOODIES TO MY ARMORY!!! ...I HAVE A BONAFIDE WIN 7 ACTIVATION!!! ...my daw just crashed - drive won't read - might bang up another desk on its spare drive...

windows 8 and 10 still have product key stickers, but they're reserved for refurbishers. it's also possible to download an application to show which product key the PC has stored, I've done that with a few windows 8 PCs

What happens whenever I change my motherboard and CPU and windows becomes unactivated? Will Microsoft re bind my already existing license to my new motherboard once I put my license in or will I have to buy another one?

i use media creation tool from Microsoft website use the update option and will automatically download updates and the os to your pc

Excelente info

The EU Courts have ruled that used software can be sold. The cheap keys on eBay are mostly from the EU and work just fine.

Nice explanations. You mentioned in this video the exact thing that happened to me and I was wondering how to correct it. I have a computer that was previously Windows 7. I upgraded to Windows 10 probably 2 years ago or a little less. The motherboard dies and I had to replace the motherboard a couple weeks ago and now I have the unactivated Windows thing happening. Is there any way to correct this that you know of or do I have to spring for a new license?

I enjoyed the presentation and Adam has a great voice. I'm an old fogie and believe that Adam will reach a broader audience if he gets a good haircut and ditches the Amish beard. Still, I subscribed to his feed.

if i have an existing laptop that was either 7 or 8 and was upgraded to 10. will that product key work on a new pc build without affecting the existing laptop?

A question: You say you can USE Win10 unactivated(since activation is free for the most part, this may be a moot point and question but..), can you still install drivers, applications and add new hardware? When I say add new hardware, I mean USB audio and midi interfaces and music production apps that require WIN10 and hardware dongles.

Thank you for the vid. For some reason I had no idea about this and had already ordered a key for my build but it is not here yet and I have several windows 7 keys sitting around. Guess I know what I am holding on to. Maybe I can return the windows 10 key and disk as long as it isn't opened.

Where in the world are you and from. My guess is English but you always price in dollars. I subbed to your channel because it's nice to have a clear and understandable voice to listen to.

Super! Thanks. Can this also with Windows Vista key?

Thanks I didn't know that I had an inactive copy of windows 10 on an 172600 now is active thanks.

How is it with Windows 8 and or Windows Server 2012? Are those possible to be easily upgraded, because my old Win7Pro key is already used up by my current Win10 license.

Thank you for info :) How do you deacivate and reactivate onto a new system?

Thanks

Thanks for clearing this up... I just replaced a bad HDD in my wife's latop top and I downloaded WIN10 from miocrosoft and installed it and then thought I would have to find a key online or something but when I went and looked it was already activated and I was like what? Okay... shhhh don't tell anyone. Now I know it's because this had windows 10 on it before and it's linked to the hardware/motherboard of the laptop.

Depends on where you download it from. :)

I would add that signing in to windows with you Microsoft account details will mean if you change your hardware completely but move your operating system drive over you can reactivate.

do i need a win7 ultimate key for win 10 pro or all the keys work

Thank for the great video!. I did the thing Microsoft hates the most, moved to Ubuntu. I haven't looked back ;)

Always keep track of the key used to activate Windows on your machines since it is not uncommon after replacing a component that you have to reactivate. Also, if you join the Windows Insider's Program, you can run the insider's releases without restrictions and no need to activate. You just need to keep your system updated with the latest releases from the slow or fast ring otherwise your Windows license will expire.

I have a pc with windows 10 activated but I'm changing my mobo this week....sounds like I'm going to have to reinstall windows?

I have laptop with win 10 home. Bought win 10 pro key but when I format computer and do reinstall it keeps coming back as home and doesn't bring me option to enter key. I assume it's cuz it's pulling key from bios. I also tried typing in pro key under activate windiws( maybe it was upgrade windows) but said key was invalid. How can I update to pro? Seller even gave me another key after it didn't work.

I am wondering if you could do a computer build using AMD 7, I can put stuff together but it's the choice of what motherboard etc that I stumble on and I thought after watching a few of your repair videos you have a good grounding in what stuff is quality and works well together, I know it's a bit of a general question, I have an old T3500 Dell work station and it's getting to be a bit slow for a good game of Minecraft, so I am looking to build something with Ryzen 7 CPU and all the best bits to go with it.

i've got win10 home is it worth using my win 8 pro disk serial key to upgrade my win10 to pro version and will it work great content your producing keep up the good work

Where can I enter my Windows 10 product keys? In my Plasma System Settings is no label with something like licensing or activation, a field to enter it just doesn't exist... :/ Is my OS pirated? Thank you so much for your help. Best Regards Linus Gnuburg

Last week my laptop developed a software glitch that I could not resolve. I thought about doing a factory reset, but, didn't fancy going through all the de-bloating afterwards. I knew I could have used a W10 download from Microsoft to install a bare bones version. I also didn't want to have to re-install Windows Group Policy Editor so I could reclaim the 20 per cent of broadband Windows keeps for itself. I went on Ebay and found a Windows 10 Professional licence key for under £4.00. I purchased this and after a few tries, I now have Windows 10 Pro (with Group Policy Editor added as standard). In addition, the software glitch was fixed. When I first tried to upgrade to Windows 10 Pro, the install disk would recognise my digital licence on my laptop as Windows 10 Home edition and bypass the drop down menu where I could choose Windows 10 Pro. After a bit of digging, I found an article that showed me how to create a 'ei.cfg' file in notepad which prompts the install wizard offer a choice of which version of windows to use (www.askvg.com/fix-cant-select-windows-10-pro-edition-during-clean-installation/),

The last time I checked, years ago, the key also inherit the 32bit /64bit build version of the previously installed OS of Windows 7 to the Windows 10 version, so you were bound to that specific 32bit version on W10. The workaround was to install 64 Win7 before upgrading to W10. Does this still apply?

i found on ebay a 15 pound key for sale , should i buy one? i activate windows with autopico and it fully works but that 15 pound deal sound good as i would have an original key. my problem is that i fear that they key i get will also be used by someone else , once this happens microsoft will ban that key and all pc that used it to activate become unactivated again.

6:10 Same and I tell people this all the time. I've had SO MANY talk of their build and say "and then I had to spend $100 just for Windows" and it hurts so bad. I have an ABSOLUTE PILE of Win 7 keys just to give to people for Win 10. Yet, I'm still on Win 7 because I like it more than 10 and 10 eats resources in a way I don't like. Still, there are a dozen legitimate ways to obtain them (some kinda iffy...you can probably imagine which based on the first tip in this video). Yet, Microsoft is perfectly happy letting you pay that $100+! If they want to move to SAAS they need to just make it free. It's collecting so much of our data already anyway that it's kinda criminal to not already be 100% hassle free...free.

I have my own key for Windows 7 Upgrade, would I be able to use that one? It's very old!!

what's the circular motherboard on the wall behind you? never seen one like that

So , I am still on my windows 7 PC , can I upgrade to 10 and use this PC's code or do I haver to get an entirely different one ?

Do you think I can use a Windows 8 OEM product key? I still have the old disk.

You can bind a windows 10 license to your Microsoft account. If it's not an oem license you can transfer it to a new computer.

So can I ask you if I have a Thinkpad x131e and the bios tells me it has a preinstalled os of win. 8 pro . Can I put a SSD and windows 10 on it for free ?

If I do a major upgrade to the hardware, will w10 sort itself out or will it mean a fresh OS install?

what about installing window 10 on a virtual machine in linux which is on a laptop that previously had window 8 on it?

I bought a second hand laptop that was running Windows 8 Home (this was several years ago) and put a copy of Windows 7 Pro on it, which was obviously activated as normal. I eventually upgraded to Windows 10 just before the free upgrade period finished, and everything was fine. It wasn't until a couple of months had passed that I realised that the upgrade had used the Windows 8 licence to upgrade from, rather than the Windows 7 Pro version, and so I'm stuck with Windows 10 Home. Not something that pleases me...

Thanks I switched to GNU/Linux after Windows Me and refuse to touch Microsoft, doing a family member a solid and building them a box with 10 on it. Will download the installer and point them in the right direction to do the rest as I don't even want to see the installer boot.

Hi Adam, i have a question , I have a laptop with windows 8 on it , but I want to change the Hard disc for bigger size then install windows 10, do you think that I can get windows 10 without any issue or i will have to buy a new OEM licence? many thanks great video..

Why does the recovery partition want revert to the previous version of Windows? IE 7 or 8.1 ? That’s what I have seen after installing Windows 10 by the usb installation method, twice. Very frustrating.