Do i have to perform fresh installation of windows 10 to activate with genuine key?

[aivan017]

Dear Ladies & Gentlemen,
Good Day to all.
Currently i am using Windows 10 PRO 64 Bit (Build Version 1709). For your information this is a cracked copy of Windows. Good Thing is !! Now i want to activate it permanently. Which is why i want to buy Genuine Copy of Windows 10 PRO Retail Key .

Now my question is, should i reinstall Windows for activating with legit Activation Key? Or from settings menu, Update & Security > Activation > Change Product Key Option might work?

Please be informed , Reinstalling Windows 10 again will be a great hassle for me 🙁

 

[sosofm]

If is an untouched version you can use the product key.

 

[aivan017]

If is an untouched version you can use the product key.

Untouched means? The key i'm gonna get is a fresh key which has never been used before.

 

[USAFRet]

Dear Ladies & Gentlemen,
Good Day to all.
Currently i am using Windows 10 PRO 64 Bit (Build Version 1709). For your information this is a cracked copy of Windows. Good Thing is !! Now i want to activate it permanently. Which is why i want to buy Genuine Copy of Windows 10 PRO Retail Key .

Now my question is, should i reinstall Windows for activating with legit Activation Key? Or from settings menu, Update & Security > Activation > Change Product Key Option might work?

Please be informed , Reinstalling Windows 10 again will be a great hassle for me 🙁

The primary question is...where did your currently installed OS come from? Being a 'cracked' version, are you 100% certain there is not any included malware in that?
How have you determined this?

As for the license key? Completely unknown if a valid license key would work with your bogus OS.

 

[sosofm]

Untouched is the original windows.

 

[Colif]

as per USAFret, I would fresh install using new key as you cannot tell if the cracked version is free of extras

 

[sizzling]

I read something recently and all cracked versions of Windows they tested came with nasties. You have to ask yourself what's in it for someone to crack and share Windows for free, its a great way to spread nasty programs.

 

[aivan017]

#Latest_Update:

Thanks Everyone for your Valubale Thoughts.

I got my Windows Activation Key Yesterday. After that i applied the legit key at my Cracked Windows. It took while to finalize the activation procedure. After that i got the Activation Indication/Message Like this "Windows is activated with a digital license linked to your Microsoft account". Is that okay? Does that mean I got a genuine copy of Windows 10 PRO and this is permanently activated?

For your information before applying Legit Activation Key, Windows Activation Indication was like " windows is activated using your organization's activation service"

 

[Colif]

I feel that is the wrong question. Activation is just the licence, the true problem is the cracked copy may not be safe to use. I would fresh install win 10 using a USB made using the Windows 10 media creation tool from Microsoft as then you know windows is clean of any extras that might have been put in the cracked version.

At least you know it will activate with proper licence now.

 

[The_Prophecy]

"Windows is activated with a digital license linked to your Microsoft account" is what you want to see, but I concur with the other posters. I would be wary of your existing install. Given that you did not originally get it from a legit source, there is a chance that some kind of malware may have been bundled with it.

I would also strongly urge you to back up your data and wipe the drive out, reinstalling Windows from a trusted source such as the Media Creation Tool linked above. If there is simply no way you're going to take that step though, the least you can do is run it through a good antivirus and/or malware scanner. Lots of good AV scanners out there (Avira, Avast, AVG, BitDefender, etc.) and I would also do a sweep with MalwareBytes too.

 

[aivan017]

@The_Prophecy,
"Windows is activated with a digital license linked to your Microsoft account" is what you want to see - actually its not like what i want to see. Fact is i'm already seeing it on Windows Activation Status after applying the Legit Key i bought yesterday. ,

Anyway @The_Prophecy & @Colif, I got what you guys wanted to say. Ok i'm gonna reinstall windows today using "Windows Media Creation Tool" . I will update you the Activation status as soon as I'm done with Windows Reinstallation process.
Now will that be ok and safe?

 

[The_Prophecy]

aivan... that is what you want to see. That means the activation was successful, and the license is now tied to your Microsoft account. It means when you reinstall Windows on that computer, you won't have to enter a key. Log in with that Microsoft account and it will activate automatically.

 

[aivan017]

aivan... that is what you want to see. That means the activation was successful, and the license is now tied to your Microsoft account. It means when you reinstall Windows on that computer, you won't have to enter a key. Log in with that Microsoft account and it will activate automatically.

Thank you for your concern sir.
For your information I've already reinstalled my Windows 10 PRO 64Bit using "Windows Media Creation Tool". During the installtion process when it was asked me to put 25 Digit Activation Key, I skipped that and selected "I Don't have product key". Later when the OS installation process gets done i went to settings menu for checking the Activation Status.
After internet being connected to my pc, Now it is showing "Wimdows is activated with a digital License" . Is that okay now? I just wanna be sure its permanent validation won't create any problem if i change my hardware like Procesor, Motherboard etc in near future.
FYI, I haven't logged in to my Microsoft Account yet.

 

[hellraiser06]

Windows 10 licensing is tied to your hardware. Once you install windows and apply a product key, the information gets permanently bound to a combination of your PC hardware, the most important being your motherboard. So, now you can install windows 10 any number of times once the initial licensing is done and windows 10 will automatically pick it up after every install. In the future, if you change the license, this will hold true for that license as well.