Unit shipped with Window s7 downgrade - possible to upgrade back to Windows 10 ?

[SimonGr]

We bought some HP 280 G2 SFF units from an HP reseller not so long ago. At the time some our applications weren't fully supported in Windows 10, so we got them downgraded to Windows 7 Pro 64bit.

Our apps now run fine on Windows 10 and we are wondering if these are able to "upgraded" back to Windows 10 Pro that they would have shipped with originally?

Not sure if we would have permanently lost the Windows 10 licences for the units.

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

If the PC's came with W10 Pro with downgrade rights to W7 Pro, there should be a W10 Pro product key in the BIOS.

I have zipped up and attached a free utility below that will show you the Windows product key in the BIOS if one exists.

If it does, you can clean install W10 as follows...

You can make a W10 USB flash drive installer with the Microsoft Media Creation Tool, using an 8 GB flash drive using another Windows PC, if your PC is not working.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

If you are asked to enter a product key during the installation process, select the 'I don't have a product key' option, and W10 will install and automatically activate once you are connected to the internet.

Here are the steps to create the W10 USB flash drive installer...

Select Download tool now, and select Run.If you agree to the license terms, select Accept.

On the What do you want to do? page, select Create installation media for another PC, and then select Next.

Select the language, edition, and architecture (64-bit or 32-bit) for Windows 10. You want 64 bit.

Select which media you want to use:

USB flash drive. Plug in a blank USB flash drive with at least 8GB of space. Any content on the flash drive will be deleted.

After W10 installs, you can install the drivers and available software from your notebook's support page.

https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-280-g2-small-form-factor-pc/11747117

[SimonGr]

OK i've ran that tool and this is the result

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're good to go with a clean install of W10 pro.

Now if you want to try to upgrade from W7 pro to W10 pro without doing a clean install (keeping the current programs, files and settings), you can see if you can still get the free upgrade to W10, even though the free upgrade period ended a long time ago.

I would only go this route if it would save you a lot of time clean W10 and all the programs, etc.

See this link for more info...

https://www.zdnet.com/article/heres-how-you-can-still-get-a-free-windows-10-upgrade/