NoahT
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Registered: 06-17-2003
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Two years ago I got a new MacBook, and I was hoping to put a Windows partition on it like my old MacBook, but the 32-bit copy of Vista and the upgrade to Win 7 32-bit I have aren't supported on my newer machine. I'd like to put a copy of Win 7 64-bit on and upgrade it to Win 10 so I can still have free DVD playback, and with the deadline for the free upgrade looming, I was wondering if anyone had a standalone copy of Win 7 64-bit they no longer need with remaining activations and share the product key so I could download it. If not, I can see if I can find an affordable copy somewhere, but I wanted to check about this first.

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Tuttle
Level: Smitemaster

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Edit: Just noticed the bit about wanting the free DVD player app. Neither of the processes below will give you that, but I'll leave them here anyway. Maybe consider something like VLC instead? The 'Windows DVD Player' store app isn't the only way to play DVDs.


Have you tried installing what you have? Any machine which runs the 64-bit version of Windows should be able to run the 32-bit version (although you may not be able to use all the available RAM). It only has to work well enough to activate.

It's a little convoluted, but you should be able to:
- Install Win 7 32-bit (via Vista/upgrade if that's all you have).
- Make sure Windows 7 is activated.
- Upgrade to Win 10 32-bit.
- Make sure Windows 10 has activated successfully.
- Do a clean install of Win 10 64-bit and let it re-activate automatically.

Alternatively you might even be able to skip a bunch of that and just do this (but I'm not absolutely certain if Win 7 upgrade keys are usable for direct activation, or if this only works with a full version Win 7 key):
- Install Win 10 64-bit (with at least the 1511 ISO - download it fresh from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10 if you're not sure what you have).
- Activate using the Win 7 Upgrade key you have.

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[Last edited by Tuttle at 07-19-2016 07:25 AM]

NoahT
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This was where I read that what I have wouldn't be compatible, since my current machine is a mid-2014 13 inch Pro with Retina Display.

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And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.

My stuff:

Tuttle
Level: Smitemaster

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Yeah, I think that's unsupported in the "we won't give you drivers" sense rather than the "it totally won't work" sense. See e.g. http://forums.macrumors.com/threads/windows-7-32-bit-on-macbook-retina.1698404/ -- as long as you could get a network connection you could probably make it through to Win10. But then you'd need to do a clean reinstall of 64-bit Win10 to get driver support, which means you lose the free DVD player app.

I still can't find a definitive answer on whether an upgrade key for Windows 7 can be used to activate Windows 10 directly (to at least allow the shorter process), but I'd say it's likely. The only explicit exceptions I can find documented are volume license keys (MAKs, Windows Enterprise etc.). e.g. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12440/windows-10-activation and https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/insider/forum/insider_wintp-insider_install/activation-faq-for-insider-preview-build-10565/68e759a2-abcc-4b16-8758-92a720a6efe9?auth=1