Using Upgrade key on an Retail Install

DJG · 23 Oct 2009

Snuffy said:

DJG said:

One of my pre-orders arrived today. I just entered the key in my current RTM install which was set to need a third rearm in three days and it said Thank You. No pain, no fuss. I didn't have to provide any more info, other than activate the Win 7 that I had installed from the RTM image a couple of months ago.

Kind of a non-event after all the speculation ...

Not that I'm complaining.

That is the way it should work. 1 you installed with a Retail RTM Version disc, and used no key.. hense you have been rearming.
2. Any time you could have entered a RETAIL KEY for the exact version then clicked Activate.
3. If the KEY agrees with the installation, then it should ACTIVATE.

Sure, but i entered an Upgrade key, and it didn't do anythingI could see to verify it was a valid upgrade scenario. We all thought you'd need to somehow validate your previous Win installation key somehow. So how is the upgrade licensing different from the retail, if it doesn't check for the supporting upgrade information?

Very anticlimatic, me thinks

, not that I'm complaining even though I actually did a clean XP x64 install in a separate disk a month ago to get ready for the upgrade scenarios.

toughbook · 24 Oct 2009

With all that's been discussed, here is a question for ya. On my Toughbook I have Hard Drive Caddies, the HDD is inside the caddy with the heater, shock protectors and such. You can simply power down the computer and pop in a different one if you have more than 1. I have 3, don't ask! I have different stuff on the other HDD caddy's. Do you think I could use the same upgrade key on another caddy? Technically, physically it is the same PC. I have legal Vista on the other caddy's.

bobtran · 26 Oct 2009

[quote=bobkn;320971]

bobtran said:

bobkn said:

Actually you are wrong about this. The dbl install method is well documented and yes a version of Vista installed without a key will indeed accept an upgrade key when you upgrade from the prior trial install (This is a documented fact).

The installed version of Vista did *not* accept the upgrade key.

You could use the unactivated Vista installation to qualify the use of the upgrade version for an upgrade installation. The key had to be entered during the upgrade, in a second installation. That could be an upgrade-in-place or custom (clean) install. (The custom install was faster.) I did this a few times, in preference to installing XP on new hardware and then the Vista upgrade.

You still couldn't install Vista without a key, and directly activate it with an upgrade key later. Somehow, having to run another upgrade installation so the key could be used doesn't quite seem to be the same as having a version installed without a key accepting an upgrade key.

Supposedly, Microsoft has prevented this with Win7 by requiring the upgrade to be run on an *activated* qualifying OS. Even if that turns out to be false, and it's just like Vista, what I wrote is correct.

In actual fact you can do a clean upgrade install and don't activate the upgrade when it asks for the key which will then start the countdown clock on a thirty day non activated trial. When your copy of Win7 upgrade arrives you install the "Product key" from the upgrade package as follows: (start->computer(Properties)->Change product key (Enter your upgrade key->click next and it activates just fine without any issues.

I have now performed this process and it works just fine and no I did not have to upgrade over the top of the upgrade install to get it to take the key, it took it the first time (just don't activate it after the first upgrade).