On Wed, 15 Nov 2017 09:33:57 -0600, Ken wrote:


Wolf K wrote:


Interesting story. No, I haven't had that precise issue with an upgrade,
but I have had weird issues upgrading with other machines and other
Windows versions. Eg, a "hardware upgrade" worked fine on one machine,
but disabled the mouse on another.

Installing a brand new blank HDD in essence means that you built a brand
new machine, with no history of previous use on the HD. Hence the
activation request, etc.


Most of what you say is true, but since the activation was via digital
license, they key on the hardware used during the initial installation.
I had a friend who had a crash on his computer that had contained Win 10
activated digitally. Finally I wiped his HD clean and installed Win 10
from a DVD. It recognized that the computer had been activated and did
so again without asking.

I think it indicates that the old HD has

registry errors and/or detritus from uninstalling programs, lost
temporary files, file fragments, unclosed files, etc. If so, a Disk
Cleanup and a mild registry cleaner before upgrading should get rid of
such stuff. Good luck.


I think you are correct about the registry, but I was hesitant to mess
with the registry for fear of making the working version not work. If I
encounter this problem again I will take a chance on such a program to
clean the registry.



I strongly recommend against *all* registry cleaners. They are *all*
snake oil. Cleaning of the registry isn't needed and is dangerous.
Leave the registry alone and don't use any registry cleaner. Despite
what many people think, and what vendors of registry cleaning software
try to convince you of, having unused registry entries doesn't really
hurt you.

The risk of a serious problem caused by a registry cleaner erroneously
removing an entry you need is far greater than any potential benefit
it may have.

Read
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2563254
http://www.howtogeek.com/171633/why-...r-fix-crashes/
https://blog.malwarebytes.org/social...tal-snake-oil/
and also
http://blogs.technet.com/markrussino...t-of-life.aspx
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2563254

You also might want to read the section on the CCleaner Registry
Cleaner he
http://www.howtogeek.com/113382/how-...9-tips-tricks/

Let me point out that neither I nor anyone else who warns against the
use of registry cleaners has ever said that they always cause
problems. If they always caused problems, they would disappear from
the market almost immediately. Many people have used a registry
cleaner and never had a problem with it.

Rather, the problem with a registry cleaner is that it carries with it
the substantial *risk* of having a problem. And since there is no
benefit to using a registry cleaner, running that risk is a very bad
bargain.