How To Tell If Windows 10 Is A Newly Installed Or An Upgraded Version
Upgrade Windows
Windows 10 was free for Windows 7 and Windows 8 users. For one year, Microsoft gave users the option to upgrade their old version of Windows to the newest one. The free offer was rescinded when Microsoft released the Anniversary Update. After that, users running Windows 7/8 had to purchase Windows 10. They got a new product key for the license they bought. Users who upgraded from an older Windows version used their old Windows 7/8 license. If you ever need to check whether a Windows 10 installation is an upgrade or a fresh install, there’s no straight forward way to tell. You might have a Windows.old folder in your C Drive if you upgraded but that too disappears one month after the upgrade. Here’s how you can tell if Windows 10 is a fresh install or an upgrade.
Fresh Install Or Upgrade
The Windows Registry can tell you the installation state of Windows 10. You don’t need to make any changes to the Windows registry so you don’t need administrative rights for this.
Open the Windows registry. Type ‘regedit’ in the search bar or in the run dialog and hit enter. In the Windows Registry, navigate to the following location.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup
Check if there is an ‘Upgrade’ key present under ‘Setup’ then the current Windows 10 installation was an upgrade from an older Windows version. If the ‘Upgrade’ key is absent, Windows 10 was installed fresh.
