Do I have to reinstall windows?

[emetz926]

Don't really know if this is the right place to post this... But anyway, I bought a prebuilt pc about 2 years ago and now I am going to be upgrading it. I will be upgrading the cpu and the motherboard. My question is it when i upgrade the cpu and motherboard do I have to buy a whole new windows 10 key or since I have a prebuilt system will I just have windows 10 still? This is probably a dumb question. Thanks for any replies!

 

[Lutfij]

The licence key is bound to the BIOS on your motherboard so when you change the board, the OS installer will ask for a licence key to be input during installation. You should be in possession of a licence key that is printed on a sticker on your prebuilt system or even on a documentation/manual it came with.

If you don't have the licence key, you're going to have to buy one from Microsoft.

 

[emetz926]

The licence key is bound to the BIOS on your motherboard so when you change the board, the OS installer will ask for a licence key to be input during installation. You should be in possession of a licence key that is printed on a sticker on your prebuilt system or even on a documentation/manual it came with.

If you don't have the licence key, you're going to have to buy one from Microsoft.

Thank you! There is a product key for windows 10 on the case of my pc. So when i boot my pc up with the new motherboard, it should ask for the product key and it should install windows? Is that it or do I need to do something else?

 

[aquielisunari]

I disagree with Lutfij. While the statement is sorta correct it doesn't explore all legal avenues open to owners of 10. A wee bit shortsighted it is.

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/5387-how-tell-if-local-account-microsoft-account-windows-10-a.html

Check if You are Signed in with a Microsoft account or Local account in Settings

1. Open Settings, and click/tap on the Accounts icon.

2. Click/tap on Your account on the left side. (see screenshots below)

If you see an email address under your user name at the top on the right side with a Manage by Microsoft account link under it, then you are signed in to Windows 10 with a Microsoft account.

If you see the words Local Account under your user name at the top on the right side, then you are signed in to Windows 10 with a local account.

You should link your version of 10 with M$ if it isn't already. M$ makes it easy to re-activate without having to buy another license. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/20530/windows-10-reactivating-after-hardware-change

Don't know your product key(key should be on a sticker on the PC's back panel or maybe on the side)? https://www.piriform.com/speccy/download can tell you. Once you have it running go ahead and click on Operating System. There you will see that which you seek.

 

[Bo Lee]

The licence key is bound to the BIOS on your motherboard so when you change the board, the OS installer will ask for a licence key to be input during installation. You should be in possession of a licence key that is printed on a sticker on your prebuilt system or even on a documentation/manual it came with.

If you don't have the licence key, you're going to have to buy one from Microsoft.

Not if you registered your license with Microsoft, which you should do when you activate Windows 10 the first time. When you reinstall, when it asks for your license, you can click that you don't have one, it will give you the option to log in to your Microsoft account and your previous license should be there. When it finds it, it will activate again. This is all considering that he actually properly registered his copy of Windows.