"How to perform a clean installation of Windows ... you can skip the product key page by selecting the Skip button. Your PC will activate online automatically so long as the same edition of Windows 10 was successfully activated on this PC by using the free Windows 10 upgrade offer."

Source: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/media-creation...

I'm burning an old-fashioned installation disk as I type this, using the tool mentioned in the link above. The tool can also create bootable USB sticks or ISO images.

Thanks. So it's not a full license... too bad.

Yeah, it's basically an OEM (single-device, non-transferable) license with remotely managed product keys.

Most legal Windows users only have OEM licenses anyway, so there won't be any difference for them. It sucks if you already own a full license.

But if you need to move to a different computer sometime in the next year or so, I guess you could first install Windows 7/8/8.1 using your full license, activate it, and then take advantage of the free upgrade to 10. That's basically what I did with my "student discount" license when Windows 7 came out. I had a full license of Vista, so I first moved it to a different computer and then upgraded it to 7.

I don't want to be stuck with an OS that I don't have a full license for when I replace my hardware.

And I found out that Microsoft basically reserve the right for full access/download of your data and it can't be disabled.