How do you check (in advance) whether an old Windows 7 Product Key is valid for licensing Windows 10 ?

T

TallerPaul

Backstory: My 4 year old Intel NUC will no longer boot to Windows 10. Tried everything but OEM's very helpful support team cannot resolve the issue. We now believe its an irreparable hardware fault. (The only remaining test is to put my M.2 drive (with the Windows 10 OS installed) into a different chassis/motherboard to confirm that it boots ok proving that the fault is hardware related.)


While I wait for that test I've been looking at a replacement.


The broken machine had an OEM Windows 10 Pro installed, so presumably that license is now also scrap. Frankly it grates that I would now need to spend £100 on a new OEM Windows 10 license.


Historically I've had many PCs and in one case I purchased a retail copy of Windows 7 for a long deceased desktop. I'm thinking that that license should still be valid.


So:


1. BEFORE I place my new PC order, how can I check that that Windows 7 Product Key is valid for a new PC Windows 10 install?


2. If I am able to reuse my existing M.2 drive (with the old Windows 10 license installed), what will happen when I boot into Windows? Will it throw an error...or gracefully request a new license key?


Thanks for any assistance

Paul

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