Clarification on Media Creation Tool

[StratRider]

Thanks to some of you folks for mentioning this tool in various threads - as I have used it a while back to upgrade a Win7 machine to Win10 with no issues.
However several threads with @fenderman @loony2ns @SouthernYankee and even @Q™ mention "clean install" which surprises me a lot.
Are we saying that a person could just buy a new SSD and be able to install Win10 clean and activated from the Media Creation Tool that I placed on a flash drive for another computer?
This doesn't appear to be a good business model for Microsoft.
Are there any requirements like the machine had windows on it once upon a time?

 

[fenderman]

Thanks to some of you folks for mentioning this tool in various threads - as I have used it a while back to upgrade a Win7 machine to Win10 with no issues.
However several threads with @fenderman @loony2ns @SouthernYankee and even @Q™ mention "clean install" which surprises me a lot.
Are we saying that a person could just buy a new SSD and be able to install Win10 clean and activated from the Media Creation Tool that I placed on a flash drive for another computer?
This doesn't appear to be a good business model for Microsoft.
Are there any requirements like the machine had windows on it once upon a time?

yes, the machine must have had w10 installed at some point. MS, stores specific info from that machine.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/20530/windows-10-reactivating-after-hardware-change

 

[TonyR]

And FWIW, I have performed 3 clean installs using the Media Creation Tool via USB flash drive on 3 PC's that never had Windows 10 but instead had affixed Certificate of Authenticity / Product Key Code stickers from Windows 7 !

Not sure of all qualifying facts but all 3 were Win 7 Professional, of those 2 were police dept. Panasonic Toughbooks and 1 was a Dell Latitude laptop and all activated online without a hitch; these were done in January of this year.

It remains to be seen how long this can be done and if Win 7 Home Premium (not Pro) also activates. As soon as I try it and am successful with Win 7 Home Prem I'll report back; perhaps another member has already done this very recently with success.

EDIT: I forgot to mention the obvious (to me, at least): when the Win 10 installs asks for the product key, just enter the one from the Win 7 sticker!

 

[TonyR]

UPDATE:
Just thought I'd check in after 3-1/3 months and say that last month I used the Media Creation Tool as mentioned above to install and activate Windows 10 on two Win 7 PC's with Win 7 Product Key stickers. One was a HP model DC7900 SFF refurb with Win 7 Home and the other a Dell Inspiron 3847 with Win 7 Pro; each installed the appropriate Home or Pro version of Win 10.