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My PC was installed with Windows 7 Pro full licence, now windows 8.1 enterprise.

Through a development programme, I then attained MSDN membership for a year and decided to upgrade to windows 8.1 enterprise for free. (Perhaps ultimate would have been a better choice at the time).

Enterprise is not eligible for a free upgrade to Windows 10.

Is there a way, a relatively painless way of becoming eligible for a Windows 10 upgrade?

Will any of these choices work? If I succeed, will I then become eligible for the upgrade? Or have I missed the boat?

  • Downgrade my windows 8 enterprise to windows 7 pro. (have not looked into the detail)
  • Clear PC and install windows 7 pro. Timely to resetup.

Last resort is to just buy the Windows 10 upgrade. Again, probably cannot upgrade from enterprise and would have to clear PC using windows 7 as the upgrade.

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    Reinstall W7 and activate, then upgrade to 10, will work. I don't see any other way.
    – Moab
    Aug 9, 2015 at 23:19
  • Will the reinstall keep all my settings (mainly)?
    – Valamas
    Aug 9, 2015 at 23:20
  • No, reinstall to windows 7 will not keep your settings from 8.1. You have option change 8.1 to pro or ultimate version by order new 8.1 key. You also can hack it, but not think it legal henkhoogendoorn.blogspot.com/2015/06/…
    – arheops
    Aug 9, 2015 at 23:21
  • You also can install windows 8.1 pro over enterprise(key required), that will save most settings.
    – arheops
    Aug 9, 2015 at 23:26
  • @Valamas yes if you choose that during setup.
    – Moab
    Aug 11, 2015 at 21:45

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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The better option is to re-install Windows7 and Upgrade to Windows10 using USB pendrive or CD.

You can Download windows10 iso and prepare bootable USB/CD using Media Creation tool. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/media-creation-tool-install

No need to wait until you get the upgrade notification.

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    On a spare drive i did this and it is now windows 10. I plan to set it up in parallel and then use the samsung SSD tool to transfer it to my SSD.
    – Valamas
    Aug 11, 2015 at 20:44
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If your PC had Windows 7 before you should have the license key. Reinstall Windows 7, then re-activate it and wait for the Windows 10 upgrade notification.

I just did something similar for one of my laptop which was not eligible for upgrade.

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