About 3 days ago, I set up a VM for a user with a Windows 7 Professional ISO.
Currently, the copy of Windows 7 is unlicensed. As most of you are aware, you have 30 days to license your copy of Windows 7 before it stops working.
My company purchased a few different Windows 10 license keys. In a normal world with Windows 10, you would be able to downgrade to Windows 7 by pulling the Windows 7 product key that is archived on the PC.
With an unlicensed version of Windows 7 running though, this is not possible.
To make matters worse, Microsoft does not release new Windows 7 keys anymore. Like what happened with Windows XP, once they're gone, they're gone.
Now, we do have the ability to go out and purchase a Windows 7 Professional product key. Though, that won't be a solution for the long term, as there are a lot of different VPN's that my company uses in order to access customer networks that are only compatible with Windows 7.
Here is my question. Is there a way to use a Windows 10 key to activate a Windows 7 product legitimately? Microsoft support gave me no good answer on this other than "buy a new product key".
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4 Replies
Oct 10, 2016 at 3:16 UTC
Dara IT is an IT service provider.
Yes, you get a volume license key which has downgrade rights to Windows 7.
Problem solved.
Oct 10, 2016 at 3:25 UTC
Brand Representative for Microsoft
About 3 days ago, I set up a VM for a user with a Windows 7 Professional ISO.
Currently, the copy of Windows 7 is unlicensed. As most of you are aware, you have 30 days to license your copy of Windows 7 before it stops working.
My company purchased a few different Windows 10 license keys. In a normal world with Windows 10, you would be able to downgrade to Windows 7 by pulling the Windows 7 product key that is archived on the PC.
With an unlicensed version of Windows 7 running though, this is not possible.
To make matters worse, Microsoft does not release new Windows 7 keys anymore. Like what happened with Windows XP, once they're gone, they're gone.Now, we do have the ability to go out and purchase a Windows 7 Professional product key. Though, that won't be a solution for the long term, as there are a lot of different VPN's that my company uses in order to access customer networks that are only compatible with Windows 7.
Here is my question. Is there a way to use a Windows 10 key to activate a Windows 7 product legitimately? Microsoft support gave me no good answer on this other than "buy a new product key".
Where will the VM be located? Do you have a license to run Windows 7 a VM? You cannot use traditional OEM/FPP/VL for desktop virtualization as the licensing does not permit.
Windows Software Assurance and Windows VDA are the two options to license a Windows desktop OS VM from a server. Windows SA permits local desktop virtualization as well as server based. Windows VDA is for thin clients and devices without SA. More info on this is in my how-to here: Licensing Windows 10 with virtualization technologies
Oct 10, 2016 at 3:26 UTC
Brand Representative for Microsoft
The problem there is, you cannot run Windows 7 in a VM using VL Upgrade license, which is what I think the OP is trying to do.Yes, you get a volume license key which has downgrade rights to Windows 7.
Problem solved.
Oct 10, 2016 at 8:07 UTC
MS doesn't sell keys. What exactly did you buy?
Windows 10 Pro OEM includes downgrade rights to Windows 7 Pro. That means that you can erase the install of 10 Pro OEM and install a copy of 7 Pro, but you need to provide the media and the key, which can be from any other OEM install.Here is my question. Is there a way to use a Windows 10 key to activate a Windows 7 product legitimately?
OEM installs, of course, are only available preinstalled on the PC. You mentioned buying keys, so these can't be OEM installs. What license type did you buy?
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