Windows 7 and 8 Key compatibility and Windows 10/11

I was listening to this week’s Windows Weekly podcast and Paul mentioned that he had heard of two cases in which the people were unable to re-activate the Windows 10 installation even though it had been previously activated by a “Digital Certificate”.

This has happened to me before and I was able to fix it with a simple Google search. The search terms for the search were given to me by Microsoft’s Tech Support. Search for “Generic Windows Keys”.

These keys will let you install the correct version of Windows but will not activate Windows. However, if the computer you are re-installing had already been activated with that version of Windows and had the “Digital Certificate” then Windows will reactivate without issues.

I have not been able to find these generic keys in Microsoft’s web site, but I have confirmed with some Microsoft contacts (besides the tech support person who showed me the way) that these keys are official.

Keep in mind that these keys ARE NOT THE SAME as KMS Client Keys which need a Volume License Activation configuration in an enterprise network.