Windows 7

[#1]

No doubt someone will come up for a hack at some point.

If MS think they an force people to upgrade to Win10 then they're in a pickle. Look how well ending XP turned out for them!

ATMs and POS devices all over the world STILL use it.

[#2]

Yes sure they do.

Me and a sysadmin friend of mine have a long running joke where take photos of crash screens when we see them. We've done cash machines, train information boards. My most recent was the self service ticket machine from my train company. He even identified the OS as XP from the crash screen. I bet a lot of others things such as pub quiz machines etc use them too.

He outdone me when he saw one on the Piccadilly Circus advertising boards.

Good fun 

[#3]

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ReedRichards wrote:

Although, in principle, the offer of a free upgrade from Windows 7 to 10 ended almost a year ago, if you download the Windows 10 upgrade software and run it from Windows 7 it will activate at the end of the process - so it still works for free. 

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For those who are unaware, as I was....

My sister recently asked if I could install Windows 10 on her old laptop running Vista.

I downloaded the Windows 10 Single Language ISO from Microsoft and wrote it to a USB stick.

Thinking I should verify I could actually install from USB stick before visiting my sister, I installed Windows 10 on an old little-used laptop with Linux installed.

Installation went fine, with no prompting for a license key; rebooting into Windows 10 I discovered Windows 10 reported as being activated.

I've since installed from the same USB stick on my sister's laptop and it too has activated.

[#4]

Thanks for that.

I've got a W7 laptop which needs rebuilding (office stoped working), so I may as well give it a go.

Luckily I have no data on it I need, always the painful part. So I may as well wipe the thing, and see if I can put that on.

[#5]

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@TheRoadCrew wrote:

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My sister recently asked if I could install Windows 10 on her old laptop running Vista.

I downloaded the Windows 10 Single Language ISO from Microsoft and wrote it to a USB stick.

...I've since installed from the same USB stick on my sister's laptop and it too has activated.

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That's not supposed to happen.  I wonder if you were lucky or if many Vista machines are capable of being 'upgraded' this way?

[#6]

In both cases (Linux and Vista laptops) I deleted existing partitions and rebooted before installing Windows 10.

I didn't expect one, let alone two, installations to be activated automatically. Go figure.

[#7]

A computer from a major manufacturer with Windows pre-installed uses (I understand) something called System-Locked Pre-installation in which the 'activation key' is written into an area of the BIOS.  Windows 10 must recognise the keys for Windows 7 and 8 as valid and since these are in the BIOS it doesn't matter what has happened to the hard drive; it could have been wiped or even replaced.  But I had always assumed these 'keys', which are certainly manufacturer specific, were OS specific also.  So it's a mystery why the Vista computer could take Windows 10.

[#8]

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@ReedRichards wrote:

A computer from a major manufacturer with Windows pre-installed uses (I understand) something called System-Locked Pre-installation in which the 'activation key' is written into an area of the BIOS.  Windows 10 must recognise the keys for Windows 7 and 8 as valid and since these are in the BIOS it doesn't matter what has happened to the hard drive; it could have been wiped or even replaced.

So, in the context of the OP - looking to switch from Linux back to Windows 7 - if his system has a Windows 7 SLP-enabled BIOS, and if he decided Windows 10 is the future and he'd be better off skipping Win7 in favour of Win10, he wouldn't have to install Win7 and go through the upgrade process - he could just download a Win10 ISO and do a clean install? 

 But I had always assumed these 'keys', which are certainly manufacturer specific, were OS specific also.  So it's a mystery why the Vista computer could take Windows 10.

The Vista laptop was bought from pcspecialist so SLP may be irrelevant (it was bought my my nephew who tells me he could have had it delivered with Windows 7 installed but pcspecialist were flogging their remaining Vista stock at a knock-down price so he opted for Vista).

[#9]

Sorry. I was mistaken (or rather my memory completely let me down).  Windows 10 could only be installed first-time & clean from bootable media by using a valid product key for Windows 7 or 8.1.  I don't know if this method still works.

• Once you have installed Windows 10 and it has been activated then you can do a complete clean install.
• During the latter part of the free period you could install Windows 10 then activate it with a valid Windows 7 or 8.1 product key.  I think this applied to the 1511 version onwards.  I don't know if this method still works.  Therefore you may be able to install Windows 10 directly on a system that has a Windows 7 SLP-enabled BIOS but only by ignoring this and using the product key on the Windows 7 label.
• If you install windows 10 by booting from the installation media you will be asked for a key during installation but you can always defer that request.  However you will then get 30 days until you are required to submit a product key (unless the machine has already run an activated copy of Windows 10 in which case re-activation is automatic).  

Are you sure that your machines are activated and not just still in the 30-day grace period?  The activation status is shown under: Settings - Update & Security - Activation.

[#10]

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@ReedRichards wrote:
If you install windows 10 by booting from the installation media you will be asked for a key during installation but you can always defer that request.  However you will then get 30 days until you are required to submit a product key (unless the machine has already run an activated copy of Windows 10 in which case re-activation is automatic).  

That's what I'd read around the time I downloaded the Windows 10 ISO (the only obvious limitation being unable to personalize the system until it's activated) and the reason I tried installing on a laptop of my own first (it was the first time I'd tried writing a Windows ISO from Linux and wasn't sure it would work).

I really don't, however, recall being asked for a key during installation (I suppose I might have clicked through it, though).

Are you sure that your machines are activated and not just still in the 30-day grace period?  The activation status is shown under: Settings - Update & Security - Activation.

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Took a little playing around on the first install before I discovered it was activated; first thing I checked after the second.

This is mine:

[#11]

"Windows is activated with a digital licence linked to your Microsoft account" indicates that the machine is activated and you have signed on using your Microsoft account so Microsoft know you are the owner.  I cannot see how you achieved this unless:

• You unwittingly installed from a 'cracked' copy of the installation media that managed to bypass the normal activation checks.  You can certainly find what purports to be such online although I don't know if they really work.  This would be a risky route to follow because Microsoft may find a way of detecting these fakes (as they have with past instances) and they know who you are because you used your Microsoft Account.  Cracked copies almost always use the most expensive version of Windows available and yours is Home rather than Professional so this seems less likely to be the case
• You might have had 'spare' copies of Windows 10 already tied to your Microsoft account and unwittingly used these to activate the licences.  I think it is possible to do this although probably not without realising.

Otherwise I am mystified and yet neither of the options above seem highly credible.

[#12]

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@ReedRichards wrote:

"Windows is activated with a digital licence linked to your Microsoft account" indicates that the machine is activated and you have signed on using your Microsoft account so Microsoft know you are the owner.

An account created during the installation.

 I cannot see how you achieved this unless:

• You unwittingly installed from a 'cracked' copy of the installation media that managed to bypass the normal activation checks.  

Only if a 'cracked' iso found its way onto the Microsoft download server(s).

•  Cracked copies almost always use the most expensive version of Windows available and yours is Home rather than Professional so this seems less likely to be the case

I chose the version I thought would be the least expensive to activate (given that seemingly legitimate Win10 Pro activation keys are available from Amazon for less than a tenner there seems little incentive for the average home user to seek out 'cracked' copies) 

• You might have had 'spare' copies of Windows 10 already tied to your Microsoft account and unwittingly used these to activate the licences.  I think it is possible to do this although probably not without realising.

This was the first time I've installed Windows 10; I have no idea how I could come to have 'spare' copies 

[#13]

Then your activation success remains a complete mystery, @TheRoadCrew.

Prompted by your comment I looked at the cheap "seemingly legitimate Windows 10 Pro activation keys available on Amazon".  Many purchasers seem happy but there are a number who complain that they get a message that the key has already been used when they try to activate.  And according to one (satisfied) customer the key comes printed on a card in a brown envelope.  Although judging from satisfaction ratings these keys seem to work about 90% of the time, I rather doubt that they have been obtained from Microsoft in a legitimate manner.

Edit:  Quite a god article here: https://www.ghacks.net/2016/09/03/getting-a-windows-product-key-on-the-cheap/ - worth reading the comments also.