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I had a pc with a legal version of Windows 7 Pro installed. As soon as the pop-up for the free upgrade to Windows 10 came I tried to upgrade. However, my pc kept crashing in the process. After 7 trials (installation failed restoring to previous version) I figured out my ssd wasn't working stable and kept disconnecting (That explained my random crashes and freezing pc as well). I decided to keep it on Windows 7 and buy a new hdd and after that do a clean install.

However, my (Windows 7) pc decided a BSOD was a better option. But, it was not the scary Windows 7 blue screen but a Windows 10 one with a smiley. I was wondered but tried te restore option which it gave me. However, after this my computer wouldnt boot at all (No operating system found press ctrl + alt + delete to reboot).

Now I have bought a new ssd and installed a clean version of Windows 10. It won't activate tho because I have an OEM key and I should have followed the upgrade -> clean install route (which I tried). I called Microsoft but some support girl told she couldnt help and I would have to reinstall my Windows 7 with some kind of usb/dvd from my pc builder and upgrade afterwards which I dont have.

Is there another way of activating my Windows 10? I have saved my Product ID and CD Key of the previous installation. I was pretty disappointed the Microsoft girl didn't want to help me.

Hope someone can help. Sorry for the long post. TLDR: Windows 10 upgrade failed, how can I activate my clean Windows 10 installation with OEM key?

Simon
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  • @Ramhound Thanks for your help. However, I dont have a Windows 7 OEM installation medium which I can use to reinstall Windows 7. – Simon Aug 31 '15 at 15:03
  • install Win7 back and try this trick: https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows10/comments/3i93mp/no_need_for_a_full_upgrade_to_install_10_from/ – magicandre1981 Aug 31 '15 at 15:41
  • @magicandre1981 – warning – be careful advicing such a thing because OP's Windows licence may get unrecoverably LOST. After Windows 10 upgrade, your licence to Windows 7 gets invalidated (it is a one-way upgrade). So once Win 10 upgrade installer finished, reverted Win 7 won't activate and another Win 10 upgrade won't be possible (because Win 7 will be considered pirated.) What you recommend might be safe only when Win 10 was not considered successfully upgraded by upgrade installer. – miroxlav Aug 31 '15 at 16:03

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Rule of thumb: once you are upgraded at Windows 10, never reach for installation media of previous version. (If you do, you may lose both old and new licence.) Use Windows 10 installation media instead. The upgrade was one-way upgrade.

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Considering your case, I am not sure whether you Windows 10 upgrade installation was considered to be successful by system. Because if yes, then status of your licence is something like Upgraded to Windows 10 and thus your Windows 7 key is no longer valid. This also means, you won't be allowed to activate Windows 7 upon reinstalling and therefore upgrade for Windows 10 won't be available for you again.

What I will do in your case – I'll start at safer point, assuming your licence is considered upgraded. So at another computer, create Windows 10 installation media and make clean install of Windows 10 using the disk/USB.

If Windows 10 won't activate on clean install, then perhaps you can assume (and confirm with Microsoft installation hotline?) that your old Windows 7 licence is still active so you can try Windows 7 clean install (+ activation) followed by Windows 10 upgrade installation. Again, this is safe only if your licence was not upgraded, otherwise you may lose your licence. You can use any Windows 7 Pro media for re-installation, media is not bound to your key. Perhaps you can get some from local PC repair shop.

Some big PC manufacturers like Dell, have different approach to reinstallations: their service centre is able to sell special Windows installation media which do not require key at installation, but installer reads one from motherboard/CPU. I purchased it once, it was about 30€. It is their way for recovery Windows installation because they initially ship no media with new PC. It was what Microsoft advised me to try (contact PC manufacturer) and it worked.

Disclaimer: I'm not an expert in this but I have seen some articles already. Here's one interesting source (including links in comments).

Community
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miroxlav
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    "The upgrade was one-way upgrade." No its not. You have 30 days to revert back if you decide you don't like Windows 10. https://discuss.howtogeek.com/t/you-have-30-days-to-downgrade-from-windows-10-back-to-versions-8-1-or-7/30624 – Andy Aug 31 '15 at 17:54
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    @Andy – it is guaranteed to be reversible, *if you perform the reversal in standard way* (using Recovery function in Windows 10). But I'm really not sure whether this works if I simply make new clean install of Windows 7 *after I upgraded* to Windows 10. Do you have reliable information on this? The article you linked is silent on that topic, too. (Perhaps it would be good to verify this scenario directly with the Microsoft.) We must be cautious on advising users to simply return to old Windows by clean install because they are in risk of financial loss if something goes wrong. – miroxlav Aug 31 '15 at 19:40
  • Thanks for your comment. The Windows 10 wouldnt activate, so I now have installed Windows 7 pro again and it activated (luckily). Now Im struggling with drivers and windows updates before I can try to upgrade again to Windows 10. Thanks for your help. I will mark your answer as correct as it comes closest to what I think is the right way to do it. – Simon Aug 31 '15 at 20:50
  • The install media for old versions of Windows is cd, so i don't see how it would suddenly stop accepting a previously working key. It might fail to activate (I've never had this happen in previous versions), but activation problems can at worse be resolved by calling the given number, and i can't see MS saying no when you tell them what you're doing. I don't know if you could then sell the upgrade key in the past or not, but in this case you never get a new key for windows 10. Do you have any evidence anything has changed? why do you think it has? – Andy Aug 31 '15 at 21:11
  • @Andy – yes, there was a change, please see comment from this guy, his other comments in that question and also the link contained in referenced comment. – miroxlav Aug 31 '15 at 21:37
  • I commented on the link in that comment after reading it, and it doesn't say what you claim it to. The "consume into" statement means that upgrading your win7 license (even if its retail) means your win7 license does not become free to use on ANOTHER computer. That is, you don't now have two copies of windows, you still have just one. And that is ALWAYS how upgrade versions of windows have worked (to Vista, 7, and 8). I've never heard of the upgrade only being one way though, and if you go back you might not be allowed to use the upgrade on another computer, i don't know there. – Andy Aug 31 '15 at 22:09
  • @Andy – to make your claim sure, could you please follow these steps? – miroxlav Aug 31 '15 at 22:12
  • No, i'm happy with Windows 10. I have done this with previous versions though (restore 7 to a laptop i had upgraded to 8). I don't get the hysteria here, the same thing has been said for upgrades since 7 (i read the 7 upgrade copy terms, said the same thing as the 10 terms). This is like the privacy policy hoopla. 10s terms are the same as 8, and consistent with apple and android, but people are upset because they finally read them. – Andy Aug 31 '15 at 22:41