Upgrading to Windows 10 with pre-installed key.

Hello, I have Alienware 15 with Windows 8.1 preinstalled. I was able to get a look at it's key by some software, as the key is not shown directly.
I am now thinking of upgrading to windows 10. But, since it'll be my first install, and I'm thinking of doing a clean one. If I use that extracted 8.1 key there, will it work? Or will I have to normally upgrade to windows 10 and then do a clean install so that it'll activate by itself later?

 

You have to do an upgrade install and your key is then transferrred to Windows 10. As you guessed, you can afterwards perform a clean install of Win10n with the newly upgraded key.

Only took an hour to upgrade install on my older and slower system, so it won't take you very long to do.

 

@bennni That's weird, mine activated with a direct clean install. :/

 

Mine didn't! I phoned up Microsoft when it refused to accept the Windows 8.1 key and was told that you have to upgrade the official way and then you could do a clean install of 10. I followed those instructions, having reinstalled Windows 8.1 and it worked fine.

May I ask whether you signed into Windows 8.1 using a Microsoft account? (As opposed to an offline, local account)

Admittedly this was in November last year so it seems that the process has changed since then. Thank you for posting your experience - I dislike giving out bad advice and I found this thread interesting.

 

Yeah you only really need to put that key in the installer now. Microsoft completely changed the rules to make it easier for you to sell your soul to them