Question Bought Windows 10 from the Microsoft store a couple of years ago, how do I find out how many builds its valid for?

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
N

Notatallsvelte

Honorable
Jan 30, 2020
34
0
10,530
I put my SSD in a 16 year old pc to keep access to my data recently for a week, while my new build arrived. Built my new build and added the SSD with still the same installation from the original PC in it and now its saying: 'we can't activate windows on this device because the product key was already used on another device'. I am suprised the OS was perfect with the other 2 builds without needing a reinstall tbh.

Surely the temporary build didnt count as a new computer???? Do I have to buy another license? Can I just do the free upgrade to 11 to escape this? Thanks.
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
Notatallsvelte said:
I put my SSD in a 16 year old pc to keep access to my data recently for a week, while my new build arrived. Built my new build and added the SSD with still the same installation from the original PC in it and now its saying: 'we can't activate windows on this device because the product key was already used on another device'. I am suprised the OS was perfect with the other 2 builds without needing a reinstall tbh.

Surely the temporary build didnt count as a new computer???? Do I have to buy another license? Can I just do the free upgrade to 11 to escape this? Thanks.
Click to expand...
1. 1 system at a time.

2. Trying to move a drive+OS to a whole different PC often/usually fails.
Sometimes it works, sometimes it fails.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Notatallsvelte
Upvote 0 Downvote
The first sytem is dead, I moved my drive from it to a back up system until my new parts arrived to build.
Amazingly moving the SSD to both the 16 year old build and this brand new build resulted in no issues.

I have 1 working computer though now, this one.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Notatallsvelte said:
The first sytem is dead, I moved my drive from it to a back up system until my new parts arrived to build.
Amazingly moving the SSD to both the 16 year old build and this brand new build resulted in no issues.

I have 1 working computer though now, this one.
Click to expand...
"No issues" except for it reporting that it won't activate?

You'll have to go through the Activation troubleshooter, and tell it that THIS is the new system for this OS license.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Notatallsvelte
Upvote 0 Downvote
Something else is happening here though. if I put my install ID codes in their site their bot just texted me, I get told that license use is exceeded becasue it was in a different computer. Surely limitations only apply to OEM builds.

Maybe the best thing to do is to try to upgrade to windows 11, maybe it will let me, who knows, cant make things worse! Right 😉
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Notatallsvelte said:
Something else is happening here though. if I put my install ID codes in their site their bot just texted me, I get told that license use is exceeded becasue it was in a different computer. Surely limitations only apply to OEM builds.

Maybe the best thing to do is to try to upgrade to windows 11, maybe it will let me, who knows, cant make things worse! Right 😉
Click to expand...
Supposedly, if you try to do too many hardware swaps, there is a limit.
Unknown what that may be.

Upgrade to 11?
Does you PC meet the required space?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Notatallsvelte
Upvote 0 Downvote
I redid the process, phoned, text, inputting the code, except I lied about the number of computers I had installed windows on, and it worked lol. Is activated now.

ALthough I still need to upgrade to 11 in case the offer ends for free upgrades. I had to turn off secure boot for this instal though, so seems Ill be doing a fresh install again regardless.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom