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I "reserved" weeks ago, and so far as far as I can tell I have not seen any unusual network activity. I assume it is not DLed yet, as I have not gotten a "upgrade now" prompt. Currently, I have 0 network usage, so it is not DLing. So I do not know what is going on.

I recently heard you could just download the ISO and do a clean install, which I would much prefer anyways. I did this, but apparently there is no way to get a licence key without going the upgrade route. So I already have Windows 10 installed on another partition, but I cannot activate it until my reservation does something...

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    MS only gives you a license after performing an "upgrade". If you would like a clean install you actually MUST upgrade first, then you can perform a clean install and MS will apparently recognize your PC and let you activate. You won't be able to activate until you do an upgrade. Moshe Katz's answer below is what you want. After you upgrade your other partition might activate I have no idea.
    – TechnoCore
    Jul 30, 2015 at 17:01

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Microsoft is releasing Windows 10 to those who reserved it over the course of several months. The delay is purely based on the hardware in your computer and it's compatibility with Windows 10. If, for example, your current graphics driver is not currently supported, the download will delay until it is supported.

You can download the full version and install it, however that leaves you open to driver compatibility issues. The result could be non-noticeable, or at wost a non-functioning system that will revert back to the original OS.

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  • Why the downvote? This is absolutely the reason, well documented across the internet.
    – Keltari
    Jul 30, 2015 at 17:06
  • Ah, well you think they could be a little more transparent with what is going on under the hood.
    – Jonathon
    Jul 30, 2015 at 18:39
  • You can download it manually, but you cannot activate it.
    – Jonathon
    Jul 30, 2015 at 18:43
  • Considering that the upgrade became available shortly after I got notified that there was a new driver version for my video card, I am marking this as the correct reason. Also note, I was able to extract the upgrade key they gave me and use it on the clean install to activate it.
    – Jonathon
    Aug 7, 2015 at 13:42
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Microsoft is rolling out the download over time so they don't "overwhelm the Internet."

You can skip the line and do the upgrade manually by downloading the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool.

However, it will install over your current partition. You cannot get it to activate your other partition.

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    Technically they could use the tool to clean install on either partition but it sounds like one of those installations is a Insider Preview installation that was installed AFTER they cut off the ability to activate it.
    – Ramhound
    Jul 30, 2015 at 17:05
  • I have both, the current version of windows 10 downloaded and installed today, not activated. And an typical Windows 7 pro x64.
    – Jonathon
    Jul 30, 2015 at 18:41
  • @JonathonWisnoski So what I wrote originally is correct. You can upgrade the Windows 7 install to Windows 10 using the manual updater, but you cannot activate the fresh Windows 10 installation.
    – Moshe Katz
    Jul 30, 2015 at 19:27
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I'd recommend you to download the windows 10 iso corresponding to your current windows edition and upgrade. Then activate after upgrading to Windows 10.

Or

Reinstall the current edition of your OS then upgrade and activate. This will be equivalent to a clean install of Windows 10.

For now performing a fresh install of windows 10 with your previous version's oem key doesn't work.

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