Someone has come to me asking if I can upgrade their daughters laptop from 8 (not sure if its 8.1) to Windows 10.  If i downloaded the ISO to usb, which Activation key should I use?  The one that was used for 8.1?

 

If it's not 8.1, is there a key gen of some sort that i could use for temp fix. 

Not sure, but i found the automatic upgrade tool to work well. Unless you want a clean install and restore docs etc.

 

I seem to recall reading there is a generic key for 10 and some post install jiggery with your old key, but I've no real idea as I've used the automatic upgrade tool...

All being well then, hopefully it's the 8.1.  then I can use the Automatic Upgrade Tool.

 

Thank You Colin.

The auto upgrader appeared on one of my test win 7 machines, it also appeared I did ask it, on another one. Only snag is it's a 32gb ssd machine with <1gb left I know I need to clean it up, I only use it for one thing though, a game

Having just been through the faceplanting stage of this...

 

You don't need a key to do the free upgrade. All free upgrades use the same key. Instead MS ties the Windows10 install to parts of the hardware; supposedly the CPU and motherboard.

 

Either do a basic tidy up and then run the Win10 upgrade from the ISO, it'll carry across most of the installed software. If you're lucky it'll go through without issue, some people do have issues but it seems to go ok for most. There will be a big rollback file for a few weeks but you can clear that out if you want.

 

If you want to do a fresh install; reformat and then reinstall Win8 not 10. Just do enough to get the Win8 install to activate. Then run the Win10 installer on top of the barebones Win8 install.

 

If there is no operating system in there first the Win10 install will fail to activiate.

 

I'd suggest that if you're doing a fresh install (Win8>win10) get an SSD and put that in so you only have to do it once.