GlowingBlueMist[_6_]
August 18th 15, 12:04 AM
Having a test machine available to me that was running W7 64-bit Pro and
with the W10 invite icon present, I performed an upgrade to W10.
This is on a older HP Desktop that was not attached to an Ethernet feed
but was using an external USB/wireless adapter.
The upgrade went smoothly, most likely since it had the invitation icon
for Windows 10 indicating Microsoft felt they had all the drivers needed
for the upgrade.
Now jump ahead two days when I decided to do a fresh install after
booting from a W10 install disk. Prior to the re-install of W10 I
deleted all partitions on the hard drive so there was no old copy of any
Windows on the machine.
After power cycling the machine I started the Windows 10 install
(64-bit) disk. When it asked the first time for the Product Key I
choose the "Ignore option".
Later on in the install it asked again for the Product Key, I picked the
"Later" option that time.
And for one last time before the install was totally completed it asked
for the Product Key. As before I picked the "Later" option and the
installation was completed. As I expected the machine still had no
internet access as the drivers for the USB/wireless adapter was not
found on the install disk.
I then installed the drivers for the USB/wireless adapter and went
online. After about 10 minutes I checked and found the machine was
registered as a Windows 10 Pro machine and all with out ever entering in
a product key. So Microsoft's registration servers had recognized the
machine from the prior upgrade and accepted it.
From all appearances the PC is working as expected. Windows downloaded
some updates, which were expected, and installed them with no problems.
So for that machine at least the fresh install (after a prior Windows 10
upgrade) worked as expected but it would have been nice if the install
disk had simply asked if Windows 10 had been previously installed, once,
rather than asking for the Product key three different times before
giving up. Remember the machine did not have internet access during the
installation, just after it was finished, so it could not attempt to
query the activation servers.
I only hope the activation servers will be so kind should I later
replace the hard drive to a different brand/size, say after the boot
drive dies.
Now on to installing Firefox, Classic Start Shell, AVG, and the rest of
the programs I normally use...
Good luck for those who choose to accept the journey on the Windows 10
road. With luck the pot holes still to be discovered will not
discourage too many from taking it.
with the W10 invite icon present, I performed an upgrade to W10.
This is on a older HP Desktop that was not attached to an Ethernet feed
but was using an external USB/wireless adapter.
The upgrade went smoothly, most likely since it had the invitation icon
for Windows 10 indicating Microsoft felt they had all the drivers needed
for the upgrade.
Now jump ahead two days when I decided to do a fresh install after
booting from a W10 install disk. Prior to the re-install of W10 I
deleted all partitions on the hard drive so there was no old copy of any
Windows on the machine.
After power cycling the machine I started the Windows 10 install
(64-bit) disk. When it asked the first time for the Product Key I
choose the "Ignore option".
Later on in the install it asked again for the Product Key, I picked the
"Later" option that time.
And for one last time before the install was totally completed it asked
for the Product Key. As before I picked the "Later" option and the
installation was completed. As I expected the machine still had no
internet access as the drivers for the USB/wireless adapter was not
found on the install disk.
I then installed the drivers for the USB/wireless adapter and went
online. After about 10 minutes I checked and found the machine was
registered as a Windows 10 Pro machine and all with out ever entering in
a product key. So Microsoft's registration servers had recognized the
machine from the prior upgrade and accepted it.
From all appearances the PC is working as expected. Windows downloaded
some updates, which were expected, and installed them with no problems.
So for that machine at least the fresh install (after a prior Windows 10
upgrade) worked as expected but it would have been nice if the install
disk had simply asked if Windows 10 had been previously installed, once,
rather than asking for the Product key three different times before
giving up. Remember the machine did not have internet access during the
installation, just after it was finished, so it could not attempt to
query the activation servers.
I only hope the activation servers will be so kind should I later
replace the hard drive to a different brand/size, say after the boot
drive dies.
Now on to installing Firefox, Classic Start Shell, AVG, and the rest of
the programs I normally use...
Good luck for those who choose to accept the journey on the Windows 10
road. With luck the pot holes still to be discovered will not
discourage too many from taking it.