Question Replacing motherboard with windows 10

[PeteZI]

So im looking to upgrade my pc with new mobo and cpu. I checked that my windows 10 license is linked to my account, but im worried about booting the pc after the replacing. Can i just boot windows from the same ssd drive which has windows, where my old mobo used to boot from? Do i need to do something before the booting?

 

[vistagamer6969]

If your licence is OEM, then your "new" PC will not have licenced windows... If it is retail, then you can do whatever you want

 

[ShasOO]

You can try using https://www.partitionwizard.com/ 'migrate OS to SSD' feature. I've used it many times works well, but it depends on your license, in some cases windows will ask to activate it again and in any case, you can chat with MS help and explain the upgrade and they may give you the activation codes.

 

[USAFRet]

So im looking to upgrade my pc with new mobo and cpu. I checked that my windows 10 license is linked to my account, but im worried about booting the pc after the replacing. Can i just boot windows from the same ssd drive which has windows, where my old mobo used to boot from? Do i need to do something before the booting?

2 considerations, Operation and Licensing:

Operation:
The eternal question...will it simply boot up?
3 possible outcomes:

1. It boots up just fine
2. It fails completely
3. It boots up, but you're chasing issues for weeks or months.

I've seen all 3.
With a new motherboard, a clean install is strongly recommended, often required.

Licensing:
Since your license is already linked to your MS account, read here.
For the OS activation, read and do this before you change any parts:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/20530/windows-10-reactivating-after-hardware-change
https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/windows-build-1607-and-activation.2786960/

 

[USAFRet]

You can try using https://www.partitionwizard.com/ 'migrate OS to SSD' feature. I've used it many times works well, but it depends on your license, in some cases windows will ask to activate it again and in any case, you can chat with MS help and explain the upgrade and they may give you the activation codes.

That is for moving to a different drive, not a different motherboard.

 

[dorsai]

It's not a good idea to simply move a Windows install onto a new motherboard...chipset conflicts are almost a certainty...it's highly advised to do a "clean install". As far as the license my experience has been that at the most you might have to call MSFT support and tell them you had a hardware issue and needed to replace the motherboard...they've always reset the Win keys for me without issue but YMMV.

 

[512-Bit]

So im looking to upgrade my pc with new mobo and cpu. I checked that my windows 10 license is linked to my account, but im worried about booting the pc after the replacing. Can i just boot windows from the same ssd drive which has windows, where my old mobo used to boot from? Do i need to do something before the booting?

All you need to do is make sure your boot drive is set as your boot priority with the new priority

 

[USAFRet]

All you need to do is make sure your boot drive is set as your boot priority with the new priority

And that is in no way 100% guaranteed to work.

It might. It also might fail completely.

 

[jon96789]

Yesterday, I just did a mobo swap from a MSi X570 MPG Gaming Carbon Pro to a ASUS X570 ROG Crosshair VIII Hero. My PC was a built by CyberPower PC but I was having thermal throttle issues with the MSi and AMD 3900X combo because of the crappy VRMs on the MSi board. It was slowing down my work and MSi would not acknowledge that the board could not handle any 105-watt AMD CPU (as was proven by several online reviews). I ended up biting the bullet and spending $360 for the ASUS board. I made sure that the ASUS board met all my needs.

I removed all MSi based software and utilities (MSi Dragon Utility, MSi Mystic Light, Nahimic Audio) before the swap. Although I did not see any issues with Windows (so far anyway), I did run into some other issues. My MS Office 2013 license was void and my Norton Security software detected that this was a new PC.

I could not activate Office because 2013 was too old, so i installed Office 2016 (I bought it earlier but never installed it) and I used one of my 10 licenses of Norton that was still available to me.

After booting, Windows 10 did take a few minutes to update any drivers that the ASUS board needed. So far, I have no issues except that the Windows 10 1909 Update interrupted the swap (it took over any hour to update) and then a bad RAM module kept giving me blue screens as well. A quick memory test confirmed a bad RAM module and I am in the process of RMA'ing it with Corsair.

On a side note, the ASUS board exceeded my expectations. The CPU speed is a bit faster than the MSi board, but the VRMs is a lot better, dropping the VRM temps from 95+ degrees down to 50 degrees according to HWiNFO64. The CPU temps went up a couple of degrees (I assume because it ran a bit faster).

 

[USAFRet]

After booting, Windows 10 did take a few minutes to update any drivers that the ASUS board needed. So far, I have no issues except that the Windows 10 1909 Update interrupted the swap (it took over any hour to update) and then a bad RAM module kept giving me blue screens as well.

Yes, it sometimes works.
It often fails.

You got lucky.