Next big Windows 10 release will ease activation hassles

Windows 10 activation fails without the proper key

Threshold 2, the first big official upgrade to Windows 10 since its July 29 launch, is on schedule for arrival next month. Members of the Windows Insider program have been testing previews of the new builds for the past month and the latest Threshold 2 preview release, build 10565, contains a welcome change.

For Windows 10, Microsoft radically revised its activation rules, effectively eliminating the role of product keys in most upgrades.

The current rules, as revised for the July 29 public release, make it easier to reinstall Windows 10 on a PC that's already been activated. That's because Microsoft's activation servers can recognize the hardware fingerprint, match it with the saved activation record, and automatically approve the activation request online.

But those same rules cause headaches for Windows purists who prefer to start with a squeaky clean install when moving to a new operating system. In the initial public release (build 10240), Windows 10 required at least one upgrade install over a fully activated Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 PC to enroll the PC's Windows 10 license on Redmond's activation servers. After that enrollment is successful, those servers are able to activate the PC automatically when the proper edition of Windows 10 is installed later, assuming the hardware hasn't been significantly changed.

If you skip that initial upgrade step, as many Windows experts choose to do, you have to supply a Windows 10 product key to activate. Because the one-year free upgrade offer doesn't include a product key as part of the package, you're stuck in limbo, unactivated. Your only option is to restore and activate Windows 7 or 8.1, then upgrade to Windows 10, or buy a new product key.

The product key changes coming in Threshold 2 offer a third alternative. Here's the official announcement:

We have 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. 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 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. If you do a clean install of Windows 10 by booting off the media, you can also enter the product key from prior Windows versions on qualifying devices during setup.
Here's how I believe the new rules will work:

When you're prompted for a product key during installation, you need to enter a Windows 10 key. If you don't have one, you need to click the Skip button. That allows you to continue installation without a product key.

After the clean install is complete and you're connected to the Internet, you are given another opportunity to enter the product key.

You can also skip this step, using the Do This Later link in the lower left. If you do that, you need to enter the key later, using the Activation page in Settings. Until you do that, some features of Windows 10 won't work properly.

In theory, you will be able to supply the Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 product key that was used to activate that earlier version on the current hardware. If the key matches, your PC is enrolled on the Windows 10 activation servers and you are officially on easy street.

This feature is a hard one to test right now. Preview builds are delivered only through the opt-in Insider channel in Windows Update and aren't yet available for download as ISO files that can be installed independently.