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As many of us know that Microsoft is giving free update to Windows 10 for the first year for Windows 7 & Windows 8.1 user. As I am using Windows 7 and today I get that "creepy icon" providing me to reserve free update to Windows 10.

So, my question is if I choose to upgrade to Windows 10 and one year later my Windows corrupted that I need to do clean install of Windows. Then, I will be reinstalling Windows 7 from my CD. Will I still be able to do free upgrade to Windows 10 by that time?

user1995781
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    There's lots that MS still needs to clarify about this free upgrade. My gut tells me though that if you install Win7 retail afresh after the first year and upgrade again to Win10, it will no longer be free. I may be wrong though but as of now this question cannot be answered without resorting to conjecture. – Karan Jun 01 '15 at 08:51
  • "Will I still be able to do free upgrade to Windows 10 by that time?" - Why are you going to install Windows 7 after a year? Once you claim the license you will be able to just simply install Windows 10. Once Windows 10 is released, Microsoft for the first year, will give anyone who is eligible and requests a license a Windows 10 Home or Windows 10 Professional ( depending on the eligible Windows license ). You are worrying about a non-issue. **NO** I will not post this comment as an answer. – Ramhound Jun 01 '15 at 10:56
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    @Ramhound `Once you claim the license you will be able to just simply install Windows 10.` I hope you're correct (did you verify this with Microsoft?). Maybe you get an upgrade-license to upgrade Windows 7 to Windows 10 and can't install Windows 10 on a clean harddrive (after a crash) with this license. In that case you would still need to install Windows 7 and upgrade afterwards. But my guess is you should be able to upgrade again with the same license in that case. – Rik Jun 01 '15 at 11:41
  • The concern does not make sense. Why on earth would Microsoft give you a license to their current operating system that if after a year, if for any reason that owner of said license needed to reinstall Windows 10, made it impossible to do so?. – Ramhound Jun 01 '15 at 11:52
  • @Ramhound Well, now its released, so how does one do that? I have downloaded it to a thumb drive from the [Microsoft download site](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10), and upon boot its asking for a 6x5 key, and will not take the one from my 8.0 install media. So where does one go to get this "license" you are insisting everyone can claim? – T.E.D. Jul 30 '15 at 15:28
  • [Read this site](http://windows.microsoft.com/en-au/windows-10/media-creation-tool-install?ocid=ms_wol_win10). iIt clearly indicates that you must upgrade first. once you upgrade, you can perform a clean install on that machine. When you boot to the device, it clearly indicates, you are suppose to be able to skip entering the product key ( again directly from the link you provided ). – Ramhound Jul 30 '15 at 15:34
  • @Ramhound If I just try to run it, rather than taking the option to save to media, it runs to what looks like completion and then crashes. (That's assuming I do it as admin. If I do it as a normal user, I get the now-famous "something happened something happened" dialog). I checked online for a solution to that crash. It is apparently common, and the suggested solution is to take the option to create install media instead. If I try that, it wants a key, and does not take my 8.0 install media key. I'm beginning to get the idea Microsoft doesn't really want me to have Win10... – T.E.D. Jul 30 '15 at 19:02

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"Microsoft is yet to explain the exact details of how the free Windows 10 upgrade will work for users of Windows 7/8.1."

"While that info is expected as we get closer to Windows 10 RTM, which is currently sometime this summer"

Source

That being said I assume we will get an installation key to install the Windows 10 upgrade, if so you could use this to reinstall W10 at a later date, it is not clear yet is if you have to have a previous Windows version installed before you can upgrade to W10.

Edit: here is the new windows 10 FAQ page from Microsoft

Although I can find no Microsoft statement I believe the following is true, once you install the free upgrade to Windows 10 use software to recover the Windows 10 product key from the registry and store it in a safe place, then if you ever need to reinstall it after one year you will have the needed product key, but will still need an installed, activated qualifying product to upgrade to Windows 10 again.

Moab
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  • As an update to this, I just tried last night [manually downloading](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10) the "upgrade" to a USB stick. On reboot it asked for a CD key, and **did not accept** the one from my Windows 8.0 install media. – T.E.D. Jul 30 '15 at 14:46
  • @Moab - Can you update this answer? – Ramhound Jul 30 '15 at 15:35
  • Windows 10 installer is NOT suppose to accept Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 keys – Ramhound Jul 30 '15 at 19:31