This was the only way I could get my new valid win10 key. On my systems it found my older win7 product key which I already had as well as my new validated win10 key that I needed to use for the reinstall of the newer OS. This was my first choice and it did the job perfectly. There may be a slew more out there that will also work the same. In fact I have found no way to get the key from my systems without a third party freeware. Yes you have validated your copy and received your new win10 product key, it's just that Micro$oft simply chose to make the decision of not letting you be able to have access to the new key easy. But in any case it does happen quite a bit that you can find a valid system installed with a genuine valid copy of windows from the manufacturer and the key is either destroyed beyond use or the sticker be completely missing. Some people do not understand the value or importance of that sticker. Yes it is true buying a used PC without the Product Registration Sticker on the machine can happen. I take it micro$oft may just be counting on that scenario. So if you formatted that drive already for the install your going to be out of luck for the new OS or getting the old one back. Well some of them."Īs I see you don't have the win7 key you would be stonewalled if you decided to reinstall win7 as well. Thank goodness they request the key before letting you proceed to formatting your disks. Since in fact they provide you with the ISO's to complete new install the OS should you choose, but they never even tell you that this will be an issue. How convenient for micro$oft to not let you in on this fact. It does this because when you upgraded to win10 from win7 it assigns a new product key to your validated copy of windows and puts the new validated win10 key onto your system. It will tell you your key is invalid and to buy a new key in order to activate win10. and I can tell you from experience YES you will need to enter your product key to do the full install, and NO, the existing windows 7 product registration key you have will not perform the full install for win10.