Windows 10 comes as a free upgrade for those on Windows 7 and 8.1, and in order to get a copy of the new operating system activated, users need to first perform the direct upgrade and wait for it to be automatically validated by Microsoft servers.
Once this happens, Windows 10 adopters can easily perform a clean install because the product key is bound to the used Microsoft account and existing hardware configuration.
But it's not a secret that, for many, this new system failed to work correctly and lots of Windows 10 upgraders actually had to wait several days to get their copy of the OS activated either because Microsoft's servers were overwhelmed due to the number of computers attempting to connect or because the fact that something went wrong on users' PCs.
Windows 10 preview for the win
With Windows 10 Insider Preview builds, Microsoft has been experimenting with a new system that makes the activation process a lot simpler, as it allows product keys that came with Windows 7 or 8.1 to be used for the new OS.
The first time the company implemented this change was in Windows 10 build 10565, and the
Threshold 2 update coming in early November will also bring this change to stable users.
