Question I have to replace my motherboard with a Windows 10 OEM version installed. How does it work?

[chewingram]

Hello,
many years ago I built my workstation and installed on it a Windows 10 OEM version. Now I think the motherboard broke, so I want to replace it with an identical new one. As far as I understood the licence should still be usable, but I'm not sure about how it works. I mean, I installed the OS on an SSD, so if I replace the motherboard what will I have to do? Will the OS be already running?

Thank you in advance

 

[bill001g]

There is the technical part and the license part.

The license part is generally tied to the motherboard serial number so it will likely say it is not "activated". You most times can not transfer a OEM license. Likely someone has a way to hack past this I am not sure what exact field Microsoft it reading. Going to be far easier to get key from one of the many shady sites sell cheap OEM keys or just deal with the not activated nag message.

Just putting a working hard drive in a different machines tends to be a tricky thing. It is all going to depend on how "identical" the new motherboard is. There are all kinds of device drivers in windows that might be just slightly different if for example even the bios is a bit different.

You have a much better chance of it just booting than people who try to do this with a completely different motherboard. I guess just make sure you have any data you really care about backed up before you try. The worst that will happen is you have to reinstall windows. Be sure to check carefully it might appear to work fine but something like the audio no longer works correctly.

 

[chewingram]

There is the technical part and the license part.

The license part is generally tied to the motherboard serial number so it will likely say it is not "activated". You most times can not transfer a OEM license. Likely someone has a way to hack past this I am not sure what exact field Microsoft it reading. Going to be far easier to get key from one of the many shady sites sell cheap OEM keys or just deal with the not activated nag message.

Just putting a working hard drive in a different machines tends to be a tricky thing. It is all going to depend on how "identical" the new motherboard is. There are all kinds of device drivers in windows that might be just slightly different if for example even the bios is a bit different.

You have a much better chance of it just booting than people who try to do this with a completely different motherboard. I guess just make sure you have any data you really care about backed up before you try. The worst that will happen is you have to reinstall windows. Be sure to check carefully it might appear to work fine but something like the audio no longer works correctly.

Hi, thank you for you reply. Buying a new Windows activation key is not a problem. If I have to reinstall windows I guess I'll lose all the programs I have installed. That's my main concern. What I hoped (but I'm totally ignorant) is that one could just replace the mobo and connect the existing SSD, having it starting with a "not-anymore-activated" windows and insert a new key, so that everything would still be there, including programs. Such a thing is not possible?
In case of negative response, to reinstall windows, would it be ok to delete all system-related folders on my ssd, leaving only personal data, create a new partition and install windows on it? So my personal data would still be available without the need of transferring everything to another storage...

 

[NorbertPlays]

Follow the steps here and you should be OK. It gets a bit fuzzy about what Windows counts as a "new computer" when you replace hardware, but if it doesn't automatically activate itself you can call Microsoft and explain that you've just replaced faulty hardware and they'll almost certainly re-activate it for you.

As far as just swapping the motherboard out and it working (activated or not) you also should be OK - Windows is a lot better than it used to be for this sort of thing (as evidenced by all the tech YouTubers who have a drive with Windows and a bunch of games and stuff installed that they drop into a range of systems to test). At worst it'll need a couple of reboots to install some different drivers (although the motherboards may be the same make and model there could be some minor hardware revisions), but it's not like the olden days! (And if you do need to reinstall Windows, taking the repair option in the installer should leave your programs and stuff installed.)

 

[chewingram]

Follow the steps here and you should be OK. It gets a bit fuzzy about what Windows counts as a "new computer" when you replace hardware, but if it doesn't automatically activate itself you can call Microsoft and explain that you've just replaced faulty hardware and they'll almost certainly re-activate it for you.

As far as just swapping the motherboard out and it working (activated or not) you also should be OK - Windows is a lot better than it used to be for this sort of thing (as evidenced by all the tech YouTubers who have a drive with Windows and a bunch of games and stuff installed that they drop into a range of systems to test). At worst it'll need a couple of reboots to install some different drivers (although the motherboards may be the same make and model there could be some minor hardware revisions), but it's not like the olden days! (And if you do need to reinstall Windows, taking the repair option in the installer should leave your programs and stuff installed.)

Hi, thank you. Ok, I think I cannot follow the steps, because the computer doesn't boot. Reinstalling windows is ok, as long as I can keep my things, as you suggested at the end of your answer. I guess I'll do that way. I'll make a bootable USB with windows and go for the repair option.

 

[Gururu]

If you are replacing the motherboard with the same model, it might work right off the bat. If it doesnt and you are SURE it was a motherboard problem to begin with, you are likely going to have to reinstall windows on a clean hard drive. It will basically be a format of whatever drive you intend to install windows on. I hope you wont have to do this, because reinstalling all of your old programs is going to be the biggest pain. Also, backup all your data onto another drive before you do anything.

 

[geofelt]

Replacing with the same make/model motherboard should give you NO issues with a oem windows license