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You said that the upgrade license is tied to the hardware, and that you got that from Microsoft. Microsoft referred me to an article by an MVP with a different answer. That article said that upgrades to an OEM version were tied to the hardware, exactly as the OEM version had originally been. However it said that upgrades to a retail copy inherited the retail copy’s right to be moved to new hardware.

The article is here. The section is titled When I upgrade a preinstalled (OEM) or retail version of Windows 7 or Windows 8/8.1 license to Windows 10, does that license remain OEM or become a retail license? and appears about 2/3 of the way down.

But that did not come directly from Microsoft.

When I followed the included link to the Eraser home page I didn’t see any Download buttons. I assume this is because I have Adblock Plus for Firefox installed. The internet looks very different when using Adblock Plus, a much more pleasant place.

There is an extra level of confusion for those whose ISPs provide the router. My U-verse connection is a big black box from AT&T that combines the router with the VOIP box with whatever it takes to feed their TV system. And of course they don’t encourage anyone to mess around with any settings, or provide much in the way of instructions. The only good news is that the PIN is ten digits.

I’ve used a variety of the speed test sites, especially when I was on DSL and suffering terrible performance. But as a day-in-day-out measure I find it much more effective to simply (running Windows 7) open Windows Task Manager to the Networking tab*. Right now my local network connection is 100 Mbps, and my internet service is advertised as 12Mbps. That means when the graph approaches 12% I am getting all the performance available. When I stream a basketball game in HD I can see that it runs in short bursts to the limit alternating with intervals of no activity. Downloads by Windows Update pretty much stay right up there near the 12% level. I start Task Manager manually after logging in. I find the Network tab doesn’t seem to start tracking until I have opened it the first time. Of course this only shows the activity of my computer, so if the TV is streaming Netflix my performance would take a hit.

*I don’t know if it makes any difference, but I always check the “Show processes from all users” option on the Processes tab.

RH in CT