Never was able to "...get Windows 10 for free!"

SIW2 said:

You can dual boot. Then in a while you will get the hang of the new os and move into it permananetly.
there is a file called called gatherosstate.exe in win10 installation media, in the sources folder. Copy it to your win7 desktop and run it - and it creates an xml file which you then use to activate win10 that you have installed onto another partition/disk on the same machine.

Tutorial for using gatherosstate.exe here:

Clean Install Windows 10 Directly without having to Upgrade First | Tutorials

the same xml file can be used with win11.

Unfortunately no, you cannot upgrade from 7 directly to 11 and get activated with a digital licence, either with an in-place upgrade or gatherosstate. You need to go to 10 first to get the digital licence, then you can upgrade to or clean install 11. I tested that here:

To activate Win 11, what types of older license are good? | Page 3 | Windows 11 Forum - post #46

Okay thanks,

These are all good leads. I will look into the dual-boot option.

Up until I heard about it I was considering getting another key code for Windows 7 Professional and installing that on a blank partition on my desktop (since I already have the retail install disk), then upgrading that to Windows 10. I would keep my original Windows 7 Professional in its current partition until I had things running on Windows 10.

When that was done, I could use my install disk to install Windows 7 back to the laptop and the missing key code would no longer be an issue. I think that would kill all the birds with one stone.

I wonder if I could just install the Windows 10 from the downloaded ISO and then buy a license to activate it. However, it might be cheaper to buy a Windows 7 license at this point and upgrade it.

I do have a disk image of the laptop from when I first installed Windows 7. I'm guessing though that since it is out of support I wouldn't be able to run updates to bring it up "to date" as far as that goes. Or are there rollups out there somewhere?

Either way I should be fine. I feel much more confident talking to people who have already done things than someone trained by Microsoft support.

Would any of these options I considered would work? Ideally I would like to have my desktop running Windows 10 and also Windows 7 (for at least a while), and get a (legal) version of Windows 7 running on my laptop. I don't really care which path I take to get there.

Thanks for all your help. You have given me options I hadn't considered.

Mike

Well, the good news is...

Windows 10 is all installed and running well except for a few minor problems. I used the suggested Open Shell program to make it look like Windows 7 (a big help).

On the bad side, when I was installing I got an error saying "Windows cannot be installed to this disk. the selected disk has an MBR partition table", and it said the drive must be GPT. Now I had created a blank partition for Windows 10 (in fact it was an entire SSD). I quit the install and it asked if I was sure. I replied yes and it gave a message that Windows was cleaning up. It rebooted right back into the installer. Same thing. I went into the UEFI and changed the boot order so that it would boot off of the Windows 7 partition.

When it rebooted nothing came up, just a strange symbol in the upper left-hand corner blinking. I tried this a few more times to make sure it was correct. Finally I just decided to go ahead. I ran the install again and selected the partition I wanted, formatted it, and installed the OS. When I booted up into Windows 10 I went into disk management and was surprised to see that, though Windows 10 was on the partition that I wanted, my Windows 7 disk was showing as 100% free. Somehow it had all gotten deleted.

Unfortunately, I had not imaged the drive prior to installing. I did have a disk image on another drive, but it was from December of 2021. I put that back on the Windows 7 drive. It booted up fine. I brought it up to date with the periodic backups I run myself. However, the last time I had done it was Jan. 2, so I lost about a week's worth of data. The main things I lost were all my Sent e-mails for that week, and the family genealogy research I had done that week. Some of the sent messages were contained in replies, and the research I can redo.

I just checked back in to thank everybody for all the help. Both Windows 7 and Windows 10 are activated when I boot into them. Both run well. In fact, Windows 7 is running better than it had been. I guess the image was a better-running version than what I had on there before I wiped it all. So it's all good.

The only reason I didn't back up was because I was certain that since I was installing on an empty drive that there was no risk. But it just drove home the lesson once more to ALWAYS back up, no matter what the circumstances.

Thanks again All,

Mike

Good to see you have everything working now. Now you can do it again if needed with no problem. BTW, now you know why people always say to back up your computer.

I have installed a dual-boot of Windows 7 and 10 a few times. In fact I have it on two different computers right now. However, it wasn't so easy on my second computer. With Windows 10 on the first hard drive I tried to install Windows 7 on a second hard drive. I could select each drive in the BIOS and boot that way I just couldn't get the normal boot menu to work right. I finally gave up and reinstalled both Windows 7 and 10 again. This time I installed Windows 7 first on the first hard drive followed by installing Windows 10 on the second hard drive. This time the boot menu worked fine.

I realized that I should have installed Windows 7 first because I have done that before. However, I thought that there should have been a way to do it the other way. I am still trying to figure that one out. Still it is working fine now so I will save that question for another day.

The only time I used the Classic Shell was with Windows 8. I found that a necessity. That computer was upgraded to Windows 10 so Classic Shell was no longer needed. I have a number of computers that have different operating systems including Windows XP, 7, 10 and 11. I have decided it better to deal each computer with their own native interface. I think that is the best course of action in the long run.

Well, I should have known better. LoL.

I used to work at the phone company when really there was only one. I worked in one of the R&D buildings as a system administrator. My main task was to keep everything backed up. So if anyone should know better it's me. The only time I ever lost a backup it turned out the tape drive was malfunctioning. Apart from that I was very good. I always keep everything double backed up.

This was a weird situation in that I wasn't even installing to the partition my OS was on. Still haven't quite figured that one out yet. Still I had just backed up about a week prior, so I really wasn't that worried. I knew I had all my data, and since the Windows 7 image from 2021 ran much quicker, I'll take a few lost e-mails and some genealogy research in trade. Still, I thought if anyone came across this thread it is probably my obligation to mention to back up, even though that advice is EVERYWHERE. LoL.

My problem was not with the technical side, it was more with Microsoft confusing the hell out of me as to whether I could get Windows 10 for free at this late date. But thanks to everyone here, it's done!

I have found through trial and error that the best setup for me is to have a drive for each OS, a data drive, and a backup drive. So far I have been able to recover from everything.

I do like the Windows 7 interface though. For me it's worth it to take the time to modify Windows 10 so that it's so similar to the way I had it on Windows 7 that I can just jump right in and it's like almost nothing has changed.

Still though, you can learn from any disaster and I moving things around bit by bit to save space and make it even more backed up. As soon as I have it exactly where I want it I plan to image my drives and update the images more regularly. So it all works out for the best in the end.

Mike