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[SamuriHL]

What I did is pull my w10 key from the registry after activating. Then you have the physical key and can argue the case more strenuously. I recommend everyone grab their key after upgrading and keeping it in a safe place.

[glynor]

According to this page, it is pretty clear that if you have a Windows 7 or 8 Retail license (not a previous OEM license), then it is transferable:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-win_upgrade/will-upgrading-motherboard-after-upgrading-to/a26e93c4-6886-4b44-99cf-7bf49ccba6ee

You may want to read this:
http://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-quietly-rewrites-its-activation-rules-for-windows-10/

I believe the "Contact Customer Support" option should still exist. If nothing else, you can go to Start and type "Contact Support" and hit enter. This should launch an applet that walks you through contacting support. Choose:
Services & Apps > Windows > Setting Up. If it is during business hours, it should give you a phone number. It looks like, for me, business hours are Mon-Sun 8:00am - 11:00pm.

I found tweets from Microsoft reps who referenced hardware upgrades and to contact support if activation fails.  But, calling the Volume License Activation Numbers isn't customer support. Those are "paid-by-the-call" grunts.  They can't help you much if you don't have a Volume License.

[glynor]

What I did is pull my w10 key from the registry after activating. Then you have the physical key and can argue the case more strenuously. I recommend everyone grab their key after upgrading and keeping it in a safe place.

A bunch of people posted how to do this, and then everyone realized that everyone who had upgraded had one of three or four keys. Those are useless.

[SamuriHL]

A bunch of people posted how to do this, and then everyone realized that everyone who had upgraded had one of three or four keys. Those are useless.

Fascinating. I hadn't seen that info yet. Well that sucks!

[glynor]

Here's one of the threads:
http://www.tenforums.com/installation-setup/11536-same-product-key-all.html

But there were more, where a few different iterations (probably depending on region, upgrade path, and other specifics about your setup) of keys that people reported, but I think they all match.

[AlexS]

 

So the product key from a retail Windows 7 disc should activate a Windows 10 upgrade, installation, or reinstallation after repairing (replacing) a motherboard. Theoretically. Maybe only for the first year.

Does Windows 10 offer you a place to key in a product key from an earlier version, when you install it from scratch, or need to activate it again after a repair?

You must perform an upgrade from either win7 or 8 to generate a product key which gets stored in the cloud. No other way around it. You can't boot off a DVD.

After that you are then free to boot off a DVD and format your OS partition if you want to.

If you want to get the actual product key afterwards (already in the cloud) there are some third party utils or registry hacks. Haven't done that I will do later (even though it may be a red herring).