Do I need to reinstall windows changing motherboard with same one

[Yusuf Il]

I have gigabyte z170x gaming 5 if I changed that motherboard with onother gigabyte z170x gaming 5 do I need to reinstall windows 10 ? Cpu ram will be same ? As you know drivers for that board same

 

[azaran]

It'll depend on the license you have with Windows 10. If you have the free upgrade it registers off your hardware rather than a key. Supposedly you can contact Microsoft and explain you just swapped motherboard and they'll reactivate windows. If you have retail version, it shouldn't be any problem activating itself. OEM falls kind of in line with a free upgrade to an extent. Technically they're tied to the hardware the same way a free license is, so you might get away with talking to MS as well. Heres a decent artificial explaining it.

http://www.howtogeek.com/226510/how-to-use-your-free-windows-10-license-after-changing-your-pc%E2%80%99s-hardware/

 

[Wolfshadw]

Since you're only exchanging identical motherboards, you should not need to reinstall Windows, but as azaran states, you may need to reactivate through Microsoft.

-Wolf sends