On 15/01/2020 19:30, JoeJoe wrote:
On 15/01/2020 18:16, Andy Burns wrote:
JoeJoe wrote:

Andy Burns wrote:

I've updated a couple of dozen machines 7-10 in the last year, most
of them got a HD-SSD upgrade at the same time, so the original disk
was there as a backup in case of issues, but was never needed. they
were all allowed to upgrade for free, despite the official free
offer being long gone.

How do you do that?Â* I also want to upgrade Win7-10 as a clean
install on a new SSD.

Didn't do them as clean installs, cloned HD-SSD (reducing partition
size if required) removed HD and stuck on shelf, then perform a win10
upgrade install in-place over win7, using ISO or USB stick generated
by the Microsoft media creation tool.Â* Later put the HD back in and
reformat as D: drive.

How does the "allowed to upgrade for free" work?

It's just down to Microsoft not really checking, so you get away with
it, these were all machines with "good" win7 pro licences to start with.

Thanks, worth a shot as all my machines have legit Win 7 licences.

Is there a downside to an upgrade, rather than a clean install?

Once it has upgraded, it should licence itself (assuming that that still
works). From then on, you can wipe it and install from scratch and as it
has already recorded the machine as licenced on the MS servers, it'll
re-activate automatically.

SteveW