Starting with Windows 10 build 14371, you can link your Microsoft account to the Windows 10 digital license (formerly called digital entitlement) on your device. If you haven’t upgraded to Windows 10 yet and perform a clean installation, you’ll need to enter a qualifying product key for Windows 7, Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 or buy a license in order to activate Windows 10. If you install this build of the Windows 10 Insider Preview on a PC and it doesn’t automatically activate, you can enter the product key from a qualifying Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 used to activate the prior Windows version on the same device to activate Windows 10 by going to Settings > Update & security > Activation and selecting Change Product Key. Starting in Windows 10 build 10565 and build 10568:ĭevice activation improvements: Microsoft has received a lot of feedback from Insiders on making it easier to activate Windows 10 on devices that take advantage of the free upgrade offer to genuine Windows by using existing Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 product keys. You must be signed in as an administrator to be able to do the steps in this tutorial.

This tutorial will show you how to directly clean install Windows 10 on your activated Window 7 or Windows 8.1 PC without having to upgrade first, and have Windows 10 legally activated afterwards.

Installing windows 10 on windows 7