[SOLVED] Is the Win 10 License installed in or tied to the BIOS (UEFI)?

[c050]

That's what someone told me (from Microsoft I think). My laptop came with Win 8 installed. Years ago updated to Win 10 (no cost).

Practically.
I'm considering replacing the hard drive with an SSD. Can I just take out the hard drive, install an SSD and do a completely fresh Win 10 install (using some thumb drive installer) and the license will still be fine?

Assuming the Win license is stored in the BIOS or tied to the BIOS (motherboard) identity.
Related. Would flashing an UEFI (BIOS) update erase the license key? That wouldn't make sense.

(keep stating BIOS/UEFI because everyone thinks/says "BIOS", but since 5-10 years, the proper accurate name is UEFI).

 

[britechguy]

Windows 10 license keys are tied to the motherboard hardware, not BIOS/UEFI. You can update UEFI/BIOS on a Win10 machine to your heart's content and it doesn't invalidate your license.

You can also replace virtually any piece of hardware you can name, save the motherboard, and still retain a valid digital license for that machine.

By the way, bravo to you for trying to stick with UEFI, which is the correct term, and which I hope will someday supplant the anachronism that is BIOS (at least on any machine produced since right around the introduction of Windows 8). It's really useful to know that you're dealing with UEFI when that's the case and BIOS when that's the case, and the two are not the same thing.

 

[Colif]

Op, have a look in settings/Update & security/activation
If it says next to Activation: Windows is activated with a digital licence linked to your MIcrosoft account, then your licence is attached to your login, and not the hardware at all now
If it says something else, its still linked to motherbaord.

By the way, bravo to you for trying to stick with UEFI, which is the correct term, and which I hope will someday supplant the anachronism that is BIOS (at least on any machine produced since right around the introduction of Windows 8). It's really useful to know that you're dealing with UEFI when that's the case and BIOS when that's the case, and the two are not the same thing.

When you still have motherboard makers labelling the firmware of the motherboard as UEFI BIOS, you may need to wait a while. It takes a long time for people to adjust to change. People who made PC for 30 years or so come to expect certain things and telling them the BIOS doesn't really exist anymore can lead to confusion. Any Legacy bios functions needed now are emulated by UEFI.

 

[c050]

Op, have a look in settings/Update & security/activation
If it says next to Activation: Windows is activated with a digital licence linked to your MIcrosoft account, then your licence is attached to your login, and not the hardware at all now
If it says something else, its still linked to motherbaord.

Fck, it does say "Windows is activated with a digital licence linked to your MIcrosoft account".

I'm pretty sure I got this laptop (second hand) with Win 8 tied to hardware. Isn't that how it works? 99.9% of laptops comes preinstalled with Windows tied to hardware?

1-2 year later ca, I took the Microsoft offer to upgrade for free to Win 10. Can't remember if I created an MS account before or after upgrading to Win 10. I refused to create an MS Account for years despite MS nagging me to. Maybe the link to a Microsoft account was created the moment I created a Microsoft account.

I did reinstall Win 8 multiple times from recovery partitions before I ever created an MS account. Guess I can still revert to Win 8. Really don't want too though, it takes half a day, first to Win 8 and then upgrade to Win 10.

So what do I do now?
I created multiple MS Accounts over the years and now I don't know which one is tied to Win 10. Need to talk to Microsoft probably.

 

[USAFRet]

That's what someone told me (from Microsoft I think). My laptop came with Win 8 installed. Years ago updated to Win 10 (no cost).

Practically.
I'm considering replacing the hard drive with an SSD. Can I just take out the hard drive, install an SSD and do a completely fresh Win 10 install (using some thumb drive installer) and the license will still be fine?

Assuming the Win license is stored in the BIOS or tied to the BIOS (motherboard) identity.
Related. Would flashing an UEFI (BIOS) update erase the license key? That wouldn't sense.

(keep stating BIOS/UEFI because everyone thinks/says "BIOS", but since 5-10 years, the proper accurate name is UEFI).

Your Win 10 license is 'stored' at the activation server farm at Microsoft.
Linked to your MS account and system details, primarily the motherboard.

Yes, you can do a full clean install on the new SSD, and it will activate itself once the system goes online later.

 

[USAFRet]

For your clean install on the new SSD, do not worry about the OS license, or anything to do with the original 8.1 install.

Just do the install of Win 10. When it asks for the license key, skip to the next step.
Being the same system it will activate itself.

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[Colif]

The hardware only links itself to a Microsoft account if you have used one on the PC. So is the current user linked to an email address? As that would be the most likely account its linked to.

go here - https://account.microsoft.com/account?lang=en-au
click sign in & choose an account if any listed
may not to click sign in in body of text
once you get to your account page, click Manage under the devices tab
click show details under a PC
click on Info & Support
it should show details of PC its currently installed on such as ram amount, GPU Model and CPU model.. also shows serial number if such a thing exists on PC

Almost 2 years ago MIcrosoft made a change to licensing so that it could be tied to an email address and if you used an account linked to an email address in the time since, the 1st email address a user was linked to is likely to now be used for the digital licensee.
I resisted doing it for about 2 years but on my last reinstall they finally linked it

 

[c050]

go here - https://account.microsoft.com/account?lang=en-au

I found I have at least two MS Accounts (2 email addresses that let me login to above).
One does indeed list
-PC name
-RAM amount
-CPU
-O/S Edition, build and version
-graphic card
-serial (MB?) sticker on the outside.
-disturbingly, the amount of free space on C drive and D drive

The other MS account asks to "Connect a device", so it's not connected. Both accounts are connected to OneDrive storage spaces. Getting OneDrive storage was the reason for me creating them.

But what I'm looking to know is, can I install Win 10 from scratch and not have license problem? This thread keeps telling me I can. But I'll remove and keep the platter drive untouched for a while at first I think.

 

[Colif]

You shouldn't have any problems reinstalling win 10 on a new drive in a PC its already been installed on.

You may need to login using that user account that is linked to the licence just so it remains activated. IT should be automatic though.