Windows 10, provides the official ISO

[Deleted member 2913]

I used ISO to upgrade and ISO to clean install.

You mean you prepared ISO & used it to do inplace upgrade on your previous OS?

 

[Rolo]

Yes. And I used it to do a clean install afterwards by deleting the partitions and 'diskpart clean'ed the disk and installed from the ISO.
I used the download tool (and procedure) in the link I provided, not ESDtoISO.

Clean install is necessary to use eDrive (SSD hardware encryption with BitLocker): http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/minisite/SSD/global/html/support/faqs_03.html

 

[software182]

you can also download the OS here

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/techbench

It's the same ISO

 

[Deleted member 2913]

Yes. And I used it to do a clean install afterwards by deleting the partitions and 'diskpart clean'ed the disk and installed from the ISO.
I used the download tool (and procedure) in the link I provided, not ESDtoISO.

Clean install is necessary to use eDrive (SSD hardware encryption with BitLocker): http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/minisite/SSD/global/html/support/faqs_03.html

Just to be clear, you did upgrade by running setup.exe from ISO within running OS, right?

You got generic or unique key?

 

[Deleted member 178]

Just to be clear, you did upgrade by running setup.exe from ISO within running OS, right?

You got generic or unique key?

yes then you got unique key bound to your hardware, then you do clean install of Win10 by skipping all "insert key" prompts until you are in Win10 , at that point you may get automatically activated or you have to click on "activate"

 

[Deleted member 2913]

yes then you got unique key bound to your hardware, then you do clean install of Win10 by skipping all "insert key" prompts until you are in Win10 , at that point you may get automatically activated or you have to click on "activate"

By unique key bound to hardware you mean that key will be generic & same as many others, right?

 

[Deleted member 178]

Generic = key shared by Microsoft for some testing or dificult install (when the OS refuse a valid key) , cannot be used as long-term key.
Unique key = YOUR real personal own proper valid key , the one that belong to you (Retail or OEM)

 

[Deleted member 2913]

Generic = key shared by Microsoft for some testing or dificult install (when the OS refuse a valid key) , cannot be used as long-term key.
Unique key = YOUR real personal own proper valid key , the one that belong to you (Retail or OEM)

Replied in other thread that is about the same query as this.

 

[Rolo]

Just to be clear, you did upgrade by running setup.exe from ISO within running OS, right?

I did.

After 2 days, I gave up on that particular install.

What I've done since:

• Tried to use Win10 and Win7's recovery to recover the system image I made of activated Win7 failed. failed again. kept failing. I'm rethinking using Windows native backup/restore (I'll have to test it...the whole BIOS/UEFI thing won't be a thing anymore)
• Installed Win8.1 "Home" since the BIOS has an OEM product key for that version (this is a gaming laptop). It activated. It updated. It got GWX. It took about 10 seconds to re-learn why I never used Win8
• Redownloaded Win10 ISO (fc revealed that it was different than the ISO I downloaded a week or so ago)
• Upgraded to Win10 from ISO via setup.exe; it activated immediately--At least I got my Win10 home upgrade for this OEM licence before the free offer expires in a year
• Deleted all partitions (heh, there were five!?)
• Installed Win10 Home from ISO; it installed smoothly and activated as soon as I installed the network interface driver

What I'm doing now:

• Deleted all partitions
• Installed Win7 Pro; updated, activated
• Creating a vhdx (Hyper-V) disk image with Paragon Rescue Kit 14 Free edition (wow it is nice...I was able to create a bootable USB and select which drivers I wanted to include from driver files so network, USB3 ports and everything works--unlike Macrium Reflect Free where I can only select from installed drivers)

I've also been using ProduKey and the product key vbs to keep track of keys.

 

[nissimezra]

I did.

After 2 days, I gave up on that particular install.

What I've done since:

• Tried to use Win10 and Win7's recovery to recover the system image I made of activated Win7 failed. failed again. kept failing. I'm rethinking using Windows native backup/restore (I'll have to test it...the whole BIOS/UEFI thing won't be a thing anymore)
• Installed Win8.1 "Home" since the BIOS has an OEM product key for that version (this is a gaming laptop). It activated. It updated. It got GWX. It took about 10 seconds to re-learn why I never used Win8
• Redownloaded Win10 ISO (fc revealed that it was different than the ISO I downloaded a week or so ago)
• Upgraded to Win10 from ISO via setup.exe; it activated immediately--At least I got my Win10 home upgrade for this OEM licence before the free offer expires in a year
• Deleted all partitions (heh, there were five!?)
• Installed Win10 Home from ISO; it installed smoothly and activated as soon as I installed the network interface driver

What I'm doing now:

• Deleted all partitions
• Installed Win7 Pro; updated, activated
• Creating a vhdx (Hyper-V) disk image with Paragon Rescue Kit 14 Free edition (wow it is nice...I was able to create a bootable USB and select which drivers I wanted to include from driver files so network, USB3 ports and everything works--unlike Macrium Reflect Free where I can only select from installed drivers)

I've also been using ProduKey and the product key vbs to keep track of keys.

thx for sharing
so after installing 10 win 7 won't activate?

 

[Deleted member 2913]

Rolo,
You got generic key or unique key?

Is your Win 10 key 1 of these ---
Windows 10 Home - YTMG3-N6DKC-DKB77-7M9GH-8HVX7
Windows 10 Home SL- BT79Q-G7N6G-PGBYW-4YWX6-6F4BT
Windows 10 Pro - VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T
Windows 10 Pro VL-MAK - QJNXR-7D97Q-K7WH4-RYWQ8-6MT6Y

 

[Rolo]

Update:

• Popped in the Win10 Pro (new download) DVD and ran setup.exe; it upgraded fine and activated
• I created another backup with Paragon Rescue Kit (which is the Bees' Knees--as is USB3)
• I switched from UEFI w/CSM to UEFI; Win10 booted fine and remained activated
• ProduKey (and Belarc) will show the generic key. The VBS script will show the actual key, which I'm holding onto just in case
• A few reformats ago, I enabled the "Encrypted Drive" feature on the Samsung 850 EVO using Samsung Magician and it is still enabled (just a flag on the device I think); NOTE: you have to enable this before enabling BitLocker to get the benefits of hardware encryption

 

[Deleted member 2913]

Rolo,
Does ProduKey & Belarc show you generic key any of the 4 generic keys I have mentioned in my previous post above?

How to perform VBS script for the actual key?
Did you try this actual key to see if activates or not?

 

[Exterminator]

Rolo,
How to perform VBS script for the actual key?

Open notepad and copy the following

' VBS Script to get the Windows(R) 7 Product Key from a PC's registry.
'
' Save the VBScript as "getWin7Key.vbs" somewhere on your Windows7 PC.
' Now, when you double-click the local script file an alertbox pops up
' displaying the product key stored in the machine's Windows registry.

Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

KeyPath = "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\DigitalProductId"
MsgBox ExtractKey(WshShell.RegRead(KeyPath))

Function ExtractKey(KeyInput)
    Const KeyOffset = 52
    i = 28
    CharWhitelist = "BCDFGHJKMPQRTVWXY2346789"
    Do
        Cur = 0
        x = 14
        Do
            Cur = Cur * 256
            Cur = KeyInput(x + KeyOffset) + Cur
            KeyInput(x + KeyOffset) = (Cur \ 24) And 255
            Cur = Cur Mod 24
            x = x -1
        Loop While x >= 0
        i = i -1
        KeyOutput = Mid(CharWhitelist, Cur + 1, 1) & KeyOutput
        If (((29 - i) Mod 6) = 0) And (i <> -1) Then
            i = i -1
            KeyOutput = "-" & KeyOutput
        End If
    Loop While i >= 0
    ExtractKey = KeyOutput
End Function

Paste it in notepad
Then save it as the following

ProductKey.vbs

Save it to your Desktop
On your desktop click on it and it will show your Windows 10 license

 

[Deleted member 2913]

Open notepad and copy the following

' VBS Script to get the Windows(R) 7 Product Key from a PC's registry.
'
' Save the VBScript as "getWin7Key.vbs" somewhere on your Windows7 PC.
' Now, when you double-click the local script file an alertbox pops up
' displaying the product key stored in the machine's Windows registry.

Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

KeyPath = "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\DigitalProductId"
MsgBox ExtractKey(WshShell.RegRead(KeyPath))

Function ExtractKey(KeyInput)
    Const KeyOffset = 52
    i = 28
    CharWhitelist = "BCDFGHJKMPQRTVWXY2346789"
    Do
        Cur = 0
        x = 14
        Do
            Cur = Cur * 256
            Cur = KeyInput(x + KeyOffset) + Cur
            KeyInput(x + KeyOffset) = (Cur \ 24) And 255
            Cur = Cur Mod 24
            x = x -1
        Loop While x >= 0
        i = i -1
        KeyOutput = Mid(CharWhitelist, Cur + 1, 1) & KeyOutput
        If (((29 - i) Mod 6) = 0) And (i <> -1) Then
            i = i -1
            KeyOutput = "-" & KeyOutput
        End If
    Loop While i >= 0
    ExtractKey = KeyOutput
End Function

Paste it in notepad
Then save it as the following

ProductKey.vbs

Save it to your Desktop
On your desktop click on it and it will show your Windows 10 license

Should I paste from start i.e ' VBS Script to get the Windows(R) 7 Product Key from a PC's registry. ?

And does running this adds anything on the system, registry, etc... I should remove later?

 

[Exterminator]

Yes copy and paste everything in in the code tags.It doesn't matter if it says Windows 7 it will give you your product key.It only runs when you click it if you copy your license and save it somewhere you can delete it from you desktop

 

[Deleted member 2913]

Yes copy and paste everything in in the code tags.It doesn't matter if it says Windows 7 it will give you your product key.It only runs when you click it if you copy your license and save it somewhere you can delete it from you desktop

So it doesn't adds anything on the system, registry, etc..., right?

Trying now....

 

[Deleted member 2913]

Can bootable USB created with media creation tool be used on any system to upgrade & clean install Win 10?

 

[Rolo]

It's the same ISO, not system specific as some have suggested (I believed that to be the case prior to launch).

Update:

• Booted from Win10 Pro DVD
• Deleted partitions during setup
• Installed, did not activate; I'm getting the same 0xC004C003 error
• Installed some drivers, let Windows Update run
• slmgr /ato still reports key is blocked (reports generic key)
• Entering any of my other keys reports other errors immediately (I don't have to change the key, as soon as the input box is full, it reports errors)

This simply isn't working as advertised. Honestly, if it weren't for DirectX gaming, I'd be totally linux right now.

 

[Deleted member 2913]

Open notepad and copy the following

' VBS Script to get the Windows(R) 7 Product Key from a PC's registry.
'
' Save the VBScript as "getWin7Key.vbs" somewhere on your Windows7 PC.
' Now, when you double-click the local script file an alertbox pops up
' displaying the product key stored in the machine's Windows registry.

Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

KeyPath = "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\DigitalProductId"
MsgBox ExtractKey(WshShell.RegRead(KeyPath))

Function ExtractKey(KeyInput)
    Const KeyOffset = 52
    i = 28
    CharWhitelist = "BCDFGHJKMPQRTVWXY2346789"
    Do
        Cur = 0
        x = 14
        Do
            Cur = Cur * 256
            Cur = KeyInput(x + KeyOffset) + Cur
            KeyInput(x + KeyOffset) = (Cur \ 24) And 255
            Cur = Cur Mod 24
            x = x -1
        Loop While x >= 0
        i = i -1
        KeyOutput = Mid(CharWhitelist, Cur + 1, 1) & KeyOutput
        If (((29 - i) Mod 6) = 0) And (i <> -1) Then
            i = i -1
            KeyOutput = "-" & KeyOutput
        End If
    Loop While i >= 0
    ExtractKey = KeyOutput
End Function

Paste it in notepad
Then save it as the following

ProductKey.vbs

Save it to your Desktop
On your desktop click on it and it will show your Windows 10 license

ProduKey shows generic key i.e 1 of the 4 generic keys mentioned here on MT.
Windows 10 Home - YTMG3-N6DKC-DKB77-7M9GH-8HVX7
Windows 10 Home SL- BT79Q-G7N6G-PGBYW-4YWX6-6F4BT
Windows 10 Pro - VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T
Windows 10 Pro VL-MAK - QJNXR-7D97Q-K7WH4-RYWQ8-6MT6Y

The script shows a new key i.e not 1 of the above 4 keys.