Hey guys, someone's machine came with win8, he downgraded to win7 and now want to go back to win8, what is the best way to attack this please since we don't know exactly which version of win8 was on there? Also since win8 license is embedded in the BIOS will it still be there even though the machine was downgraded to win7?

Mike, I think it depends on whether he had an OEM with downgrade rights and took that path.

If he did, he may have to contact the OEM for how to proceed.

There's some information here, referencing it.

http://www.microsoft.com/oem/en/licensing/sblicensing/pages/downgrade_rights.aspx#fbid=E-5UlISZUQB

Thanks for the link Cindy but tat link doesn't really answer the main question for me.

If he did a downgrade without paying for a new copy of Windows 7, IE he took the path Cindy mentioned, then the version of W7 will be the same or similar version as the original W8 was. However to go back to W8 or 8.1 may require buying W8, or he could take the free upgrade path to W10.

As Cindy mentioned, it may be best to ring Microsoft and ask their advice as being an original downgrade, to go back up again is a bit of a grey area within what I know of the Microsoft license conditions, regardless of what the W8 license key was originally. I doubt there will be a record of it as the downgrade to W7 will have changed it to an appropriate key for W7 as far as I know.

I guess the main question here for me would be, would downgrading to w7 overwrite or void the w8 license key in the bios?

It would depend on whether he simply installed Windows 7 or if he took the official downgrade path, Mike.

Ok, can you explain both situations mentioned so i can fully grasp this please?

OK Mike, to answer that we do need to know how he downgraded from Windows 8 to Windows 7 in the first place.

 

To help you understand that process and the options available for doing it, have a look at this Microsoft article.

 

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2832566

 

Nev.