J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
In message , Paul
writes:
[]
You have two computers.

Both with an authorised/activated/whatever Windows 7 on them.

You can do the steps out of order.

The logical order would be:

1) Download MediaCreationTool1903.exe
2) Execute MediaCreationTool1903.exe
3) "Prepare media for another computer".
4) It'll download 3.5GB of stuff for the ISO file.
5) Have it burn the DVD-R when the download step is finished.
6) Place Spare drive in 8500, remove original drive.

At that point, the 8500 contains no trace of Windows 7 ...

7) Boot the DVD-R.
8) Do a Clean Install on the empty Spare drive.
9) A couple of screens into the install process, it
will ask for a license key.
10) Enter the key.
11) Finish the install of Windows 10.
12) Verify it is activated.

... so how does the Microsoft server know that it had a whatevered 7?

13) Put original drive back in the 8500.

Then presumably repeat 6-13 for his other (7xx?) computer?

HTH,
Paul

AFAIK, you should be able to do a clean install and present
a key and get your Digital Entitlement that way.

The alternative method, is to start with a clone of
your Windows 7 SP1 (which has a key internally), install
Windows 10 over top of this clone, and it should
get the Digital Entitlement that way.

And you don't have to give an email address or create
an MSA. In the lower bar, is an option to skip using
an MSA and use a "local account". And that's definitely
good enough for this exercise. It's better to use
a "local account" during an install, get the desired
home directory name, rather than the crusty "automatically
generated" account name that ****es people off. You can
add an MSA later and it should keep the original account name.

Since this is going to be a throw away install, the details
don't much matter. Some things can be learned during the
install, such as the stupid questions the installer will
ask, that "great" interface with the sliders, where
a couple of sliders, you need to scroll to see them,
all of that high comedy stuff. So later, when you're installing
Windows 10 for real, you have some experience at the
install process.

Cortana doesn't seem to talk to me any more during installs.
At one time, it managed to find the audio driver and it
would start talking (until you switched it off), but
a number of installs I've tried, there didn't seem to be
an audio driver loaded when it was time for Cortana to
talk. Which was a relief.

Paul