I own a retail license for windows 10, the type you can transfer to a different computer. I've recently built a new computer to replace my old computer, so I reinstalled windows 10 on my old computer (thinking that would remove the license, and because I intend to sell it) and activated the license on my new computer. However, I found out a few weeks later that the license had not actually been removed from my old computer after reinstalling windows 10. So I am now using the license on 2 different computers, which I did not know was possible, but it has been working fine for weeks now without any complaints from windows about duplicate use of my license or anything like that.
I still want to remove the license from my old computer though, because I am planning to sell it and I do not want to give my license away to a random stranger. I've tried the following things to remove the windows license, none of which have worked:
I still want to remove the license from my old computer though, because I am planning to sell it and I do not want to give my license away to a random stranger. I've tried the following things to remove the windows license, none of which have worked:
- Clean reinstall of windows 10 (from USB).
- Used the 'reset' feature in windows 10, selecting to remove all personal files and clean drives (to make deleted files harder to recover).
- Uninstalled the product key as described here. It does say 'Uninstalled product key successfully', but I can still use the computer without any kind of notifications about using an unregistered version, and when I use the 'reset' feature again it automatically reactivates my old license somehow after reinstalling windows.
- Removed the device from my Microsoft account.
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