Factory Reset - Do I loose the Windows 10 Free upgrade?

Gloomendoom

I've loaded Windows 10 on a secondhand (wiped, and previously Win 8) machine with no problems at all. Windows has activated a soon as I have signed into my Microsoft account.

esuhl

Gloomendoom wrote: »

I've loaded Windows 10 on a secondhand (wiped, and previously Win 8) machine with no problems at all. Windows has activated a soon as I have signed into my Microsoft account.

It'll work without a Microsoft account too.

(You might have to manually activate via the Control Panel.)

Head_The_Ball

No.

You don't lose it either.

:whistle:

System

jazzy wrote: »

I am hoping to sell my notebook which is around 2 years old. The notebook came with Windows 8 installed I upgraded to Windows 10 through the free offer that they had a while back. I would like to do a factory reset to remove all of my data. So I presume the notebook would revert to Windows 8? or is there a way to retain the Windows 10 o/s?

Go to Settings, Windows Update, Recovery, Reset this PC. Follow the options on the screen. No need to revert back to Windows 8 and then upgrade again as people have said, no need to enter a key, you won't lose your free upgrade.

Basically you have a digital license whose key is generated from the hardware IDs in your computer so whatever you choose to do you can install again even from a blank hard drive, not enter a product key during setup then as long as you choose the correct version to install (Home or Pro) it'll automatically be activated using the digital license stored on Microsofts servers.