I still have some reservations to upgrading to Windows 10. I'm fully aware that there is still a year left for the free activation but I might not choose to use Windows 10 for a bit longer than that. Now I'm wondering what needs to be done so I could still upgrade to windows 10 after that year is over.
If I understand things correctly:
- After July 29th, 2016 I won't be able to upgrade for free.
- Windows 10 upgrades stores the hardware signature (mainly motherboard) and is tied to that computer.
So I'm wondering if one could put in a different hard drive into the computer, install and activate Windows 7 on it, upgrade and activate Windows 10, pull the hard drive and replace the original hard drive. Would this work to ensure that Windows 10 can be installed for free on that computer after the year passed?
Best Answer
I think you can't do that. When you activated a key of Windows it will be register your hardware (network card, motherboard, hard drive, etc), so when you try to install and activate another windows 10 with same serial number you will get message that the serial is not correct and windows can't be activate.