Is it possible to activate my windows 10 after changing the motherboard?

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chandymseb

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Aug 7, 2016
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Hi all
I am using Windows 10 build 1607. I had bought a pre-built pc with Windows 8 OEM version, which I upgraded to Windows 10 anniversary edition using the free upgrade program. I am planning to upgrade my motherboard. Will I be able to re-activate my windows 10 after the swap?
 
Solution
USAFRet


As of the 1607 build, almost certainly YES.
Read more here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/help/20527/windows-10-activation-troubleshooter
Click on You recently made a significant hardware change
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As of the 1607 build, almost certainly YES.
Read more here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/help/20527/windows-10-activation-troubleshooter
Click on You recently made a significant hardware change
 
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Solution


But the activation in settings says windows is activated and linked to your Microsoft account. Can I activate windows using this after the swap?
 
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We all were. This was rumored to be happening, but the link above seems to verify it.
 
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So, are you saying that re-activation after swap is not possible? Activation troubleshooter is no longer useful?
 
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No, I'm saying the exact opposite.
Link your OS install to a Microsoft account, and you can change hardware as needed.
Read the link I posted above.
 
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Thank-you guys for your help. I am very grateful to you for your help.
 
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MERGED QUESTION
Question from chandymseb : "Activation with activation troubleshooter"

Hi all
I changed my motherboard recently. I am using Windows 10 OEM edition. If I use the activation troubleshooter to re-activate my windows will my new motherboard get the digital entitlement. My computer is slow after the hardware change. So I want to do a clean install of Windows. Will the product key be embedded in the bios of the new motherboard when I use the activation troubleshooter?
 
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Nope. This is incorrect.

In fact I am stuck on it right now. Upgraded my mobo, CPU, RAM and GPU and there is no way for me to get another Win 10 activation even using this option. It may work for some people, but it will not work for most because this feature requires an old hardware snapshot which you can not take manually. It will work for businesses that run literally everything on Enterprise and MS Office, but not the rest of us.

The way this feature works, is that you have to basically run your computer for a while with your prior hardware, on your prior OS (Win 7 or Win 8), and do so while using a FULL and signed it microsoft account at all times. Meaning, you have to switch your primary windows admin login, everything, to your microsoft account. Literally everything.

In my case, I knew I needed a hardware snapshot before I proceeded with Win 10 upgrade, so I ran for quite a bit on my MS account to allow it to take such a snapshot. Then upgraded to Win 10 free, then Win 10 anniversary, and now upgraded my machine.

What I didn't know back then (which I do now after about 2 days of google searches and reading everything from MS support boards to wikis to various threads and listening to recorded support calls) when still on Win 7, was that in order to get such a snapshot, you have to run through a MAJOR windows update of some sort and have MS cloud features enabled etc. There is no way for anyone to take it manually then upload it or attach it to their MS account. There is no button in any settings, no command line, nothing.

In my case, the only things that are left out of my old system are SSDs, HD and power supply. MS does not use SSD or HD IDs and power supply is not applicable.

In addition, the whole feature seems to be bugged or not working. When I tried it, and logged on with my MS account, it took me to the next screen saying something like : Windows can't recognize any of your previous hardware, below is your hardware list... And the list is completely blank, nothing is there. Even though I ran on Win 7 using my MS account for a bit over a month doing regular stuff, updates, etc. it never took my hardware snapshot in the 1st place, its empty, so even if I plug in my old hardware, it can't work because there is nothing there for it to compare to.

I'll give phone support a try on a working weekday, as last time I tried it on a weekend I got India, which caused me nothing but wasting even more time and more frustration. We'll see how it goes.

http://imgur.com/bMklZPk

http://imgur.com/MyUgimd

http://imgur.com/hk5NVEH

http://imgur.com/QqWWkT8

http://imgur.com/0axcIDj

Also getting a consistant error in there as you can see. That also happens when there is no hardware snapshot or no recorded tied activations. The You recently made a significant hardware change feature, just doesn't work.




 
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The way this feature works, is that you have to basically run your computer for a while with your prior hardware, on your prior OS (Win 7 or Win 8), and do so while using a FULL and signed it microsoft account at all times. Meaning, you have to switch your primary windows admin login, everything, to your microsoft account. Literally everything.
Click to expand...

As mentioned in the text, you have to link a fully activated Win 10 install with a MS account.
You have to do this before you change the hardware.

Or is there some issue I am not aware of? Is there some problem I'm not seeing?
 
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1. Its bugged or poorly designed or whatever else, it doesnt take the hardware snapshot. See the last image on my post ? See my submitted hardware list ? See its blank space where the list is supposed to be ? This was not my doing, again I ran Win 7 on MS account for over a month, doing updates all sorts of things, everything MS enabled, just for the purpose of getting the hardware snapshot. This blank space is 100% on MS.

2. There is no plain, visible and to the point warning of any kind that if you change your mobo your OS will deactivate. This is HUGE and needs to be plainly labeled for people to see, not find out AFTER the fact. So while I at least tried to get it right, there are a lot of people that didn't because no one had any idea. Everyone mistakenly thought its tied to hard drives or SSDs. Just google a bit, doesn't take much to see just how wide spread this is and how many people are affected. There needs to be a BIG ASS WIDE SCREEN warning when booting up a new mobo to put the drive on the old one if you wanna keep your OS.

3. Once you get to this state, there is no turning back. Your drives are in new comp, all the hardware is all installed and Win 10 Anniversary date has passed. So even if you wipe a drive, re-install Win 7 or 8 on it for a new hardware snapshot, you will not be able to get Win 10 anymore because the date has passed. Not to mention, its silly and rediculous to go to these sort of lengths to get a legit activation which should have just simply and plainly worked from the start, without any hassles, in the first place.
 
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Everyone mistakenly thought its tied to hard drives or SSDs.
Click to expand...
No, "everyone" did not.

You can read up on Microsoft licensing here:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/legal/IntellectualProperty/UseTerms/Default.aspx

But if you had a valid Win 7/8.1, and then Upgraded that to Win 10, and then wish to do a reinstall of Win 10...there is zero need to go back to Win 7 and then Upgrade again.
You could have just done a full install with Win 10.

Can't help it if you think that was the case, but it isn't.
If you have a major brain hurt, talk to MS about this.

The 1607 Update to Win 10 (early August 2016) enabled you to link a license key to an MS account. If you have not done that Update, oh well.
 
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tying windows to a hdd was never the case, as it would be evil and a great way to make money as HDD are likely to die sometime in next few years, and Microsoft would be making a lot more than they do already.

Really, if you swapped everything except drives and PSU, then you have a new PC now. expecting a free copy of win 10 on a new PC is probably stretching the new hardware reactivation promise a little far.

from the link USAFRet quoted about changes:

If you don’t see the device you’re using in the list of results, make sure that you’re signed in using the same Microsoft account you linked to the Windows 10 digital license on your device.

If you’re signed in using the correct Microsoft account, here are some additional reasons why you can’t reactivate Windows:

- The edition of Windows on your device doesn’t match the edition of Windows you linked to your digital license.
- The type of device you’re activating doesn’t match the type of device you linked to your digital license.
- Windows was never activated on your device.
Click to expand...

Your new PC falls into last category. The changes only apply for changing the motherboard, not everything at same time. Before 1607 you would get deactivated changing mobo, this is the main change. It doesn't give you win 10 for life on all other computers

 
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You know, just to boot, I actually went to the MS store and tried to buy Win 10 and the following is the result:

http://imgur.com/HOtPzaT and of course I have done the 1607 update, and tried from updated Win 7 drive, AND tried from new install, AND tried about a dozen different things that you guys here haven't even mentioned yet. Please, do tell me more how there are no issues with it and how its me that is "holding my iphone wrong" ....

Either way I am going to contact MS, but have to wait for an actual US workday so that I can get actual tech support perhaps instead of the useless outsourced callcenter crap from india like the last time I called them, to either resolve the issue or make a purchase over the phone and have them provide me a valid number.

In the meanwhile, I am also going to do 1 more clean re-install with brand new media creation tool, but if either one of these will not work, I may end up actually having no choice but to crack it. What else am I going to do ? Can't let my OS expire and can't run IOS or Linux cause of the stuff I use runs on MS Windows.



 
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I'm just annoyed. I had a Win10 system activated by upgrade from an activated Win7, which apparently voided the older Win7 license. It was running well, but I wanted to tweak it. I added a hard drive and thought I would just clone my SSD with Win10 running to the new hard drive and run from the hard drive as system drive. Long story short, Win10 got deactivated, much like others here. I could not go back to Win7 because the old key was voided in the upgrade, and now the Win10 was doing the Not Activated nag. Irksome, irksome, irksome.

I worked around it, but I suppose the moral is, be very careful making changes. Perhaps I will register this key with Microsoft, I've just avoided that for privacy reasons, but since Win10 is such a peeping Tom anyway, what harm can it do?
 
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You're in better shape then I am, as you see above I can't even legitimately buy one now from microsoft, that's how badly these activations and their rulesets are screwed up.

I'm going to download and make a brand new MS media creation tool right now and wipe one of my back-up SSDs, unplug all my other drives and do a clean install, see what happens. Maybe I will be able to purchase it.

 
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If i only would have know that before 🙁

I already upgraded to my brand new i7 7700k zx270-UD5, do i have to put together my old HW set up to link my digital licence to my ms account?? 😡
 
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The only other option is to call Microsoft.
 
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