Will I Still Have My OS After Swapping Motherboards?

[Duz7]

As my title states, I will be swapping motherboards soon. I started out on Windows 7 in which i got the key from one of my friends who gets windows product keys from his job. I am unsure if the key is OEM or Retail i just know that i got a printed out paper from the place he works with a product key on it and it worked just fine. A few months later I upgraded to Windows 10 and all of that went smoothly as well. After i swap my motherboards will I still have my OS? I really don't want to have to blow nearly $100 on another OS when i currently have one. Thanks for the help in advance!

 

[ss202sl]

" i got the key from one of my friends who gets windows product keys from his job"

Sounds like it never was your key to begin with

 

[Gingerbread]

There should be no problem. And if there is, just use the phone call activation, usually takes 3-5 mins and you are done. You will be able to use the key.

 

[Guest]

Should not be a problem. you would need to just install the new drivers for the motherboard and you should be set.

 

[USAFRet]

Be prepared for a full reinstall. May not be needed, but better to be prepared.

As to your license key? Completely unknown.

 

[CountMike]

" i got the key from one of my friends who gets windows product keys from his job"

Sounds like it never was your key to begin with

That's probably volume licensing, so what's the problem ?

 

[USAFRet]

" i got the key from one of my friends who gets windows product keys from his job"

Sounds like it never was your key to begin with

That's probably volume licensing, so what's the problem ?

"Well, we purchased 50 licenses for our employees, but my MS sales rep is saying that 124 licenses are being used. Does anyone know anything about this?"

Volume licensing does not mean give it to all your friends.

 

[Gingerbread]

That's not precisely how it works USAFRet. Also why does everyone care so much, not like he's "stealing" and even if he was, screw Microsoft.

 

[USAFRet]

That's not precisely how it works USAFRet. Also why does everyone care so much, not like he's "stealing" and even if he was, screw Microsoft.

Yeah, and giving it to your friends isn't precisely how it works either.
VLK does not equal 'unlimited'.

 

[CountMike]

That's not precisely how it works USAFRet. Also why does everyone care so much, not like he's "stealing" and even if he was, screw Microsoft.

Yeah, and giving it to your friends isn't precisely how it works either.
VLK does not equal 'unlimited'.

Doesn't mean unlimited but exactly the number it's sold for. Why would MS care who uses it as long as it's payed for ? What could have happened in this case is that somebody may have used same license on another computer or more than licenses is valid for and now it has been rejected.

 

[rgd1101]

That's not precisely how it works USAFRet. Also why does everyone care so much, not like he's "stealing" and even if he was, screw Microsoft.

Yeah, and giving it to your friends isn't precisely how it works either.
VLK does not equal 'unlimited'.

Doesn't mean unlimited but exactly the number it's sold for. Why would MS care who uses it as long as it's payed for ? What could have happened in this case is that somebody may have used same license on another computer or more than licenses is valid for and now it has been rejected.

if you buy 50 and use 100. that is not pay for. I guess when people have no moral, they don't care about right and wrong.

 

[USAFRet]

That's not precisely how it works USAFRet. Also why does everyone care so much, not like he's "stealing" and even if he was, screw Microsoft.

Yeah, and giving it to your friends isn't precisely how it works either.
VLK does not equal 'unlimited'.

Doesn't mean unlimited but exactly the number it's sold for. Why would MS care who uses it as long as it's payed for ? What could have happened in this case is that somebody may have used same license on another computer or more than licenses is valid for and now it has been rejected.

Right.
But why should the business pay for licenses they are not using?

In any case...it does NOT sound like a VLK.
It was Win 7, he Upgraded to Win 10.
Licenses obtained through Software Assurance are not eligible to do that free Upgrade to 10.


Back to the original question - "Will I Still Have My OS After Swapping Motherboards?"
There are two considerations, Operation and Licensing.
Operation - Changing the motherboard often requires a full reinstall.
Licensing - The Win 10 'license' is a combination of hardware + the original Win 7 license. Change the hardware (motherboard), and now you have a different system. It will almost certainly become deactivated. Not 100%, but probably.

Changing hardware often requires a call to MS to reenable that Win 10 license on the new hardware.
It is completely up to them to say yea or nay.

 

[Gingerbread]

To begin with you don't buy "50 copies". You pay a fee, (i think yearly) to use the microsoft service to generate keys for you. It's not like they are already 50 generated sold keys. It was the same way back when I was in university. You could get like 10 for yourself no problem, just they expired after 2 years or so (which is strange because I've been using this one for 5 years and still works and all).

 

[rgd1101]

To begin with you don't buy "50 copies". You pay a fee, (i think yearly) to use the microsoft service to generate keys for you. It's not like they are already 50 generated sold keys. It was the same way back when I was in university. You could get like 10 for yourself no problem, just they expired after 2 years or so (which is strange because I've been using this one for 5 years and still works and all).

And you think A fee for unlimited # of keys?

 

[USAFRet]

To begin with you don't buy "50 copies". You pay a fee, (i think yearly) to use the microsoft service to generate keys for you. It's not like they are already 50 generated sold keys. It was the same way back when I was in university. You could get like 10 for yourself no problem, just they expired after 2 years or so (which is strange because I've been using this one for 5 years and still works and all).

You pay a fee for a certain number of licenses.
The fee for a small business of 50 is significantly less than the fee for a large business of 5,000.

Your experience with student licenses from your school has little to do with this.

 

[Gingerbread]

That's the way it worked back in my university. Pretty sure that's the way it works in other companies as well, if it didn't the employees (like his friend) would have no access to the keys and only the system administrator would be able to hand them out. Also they were not student licenses.

 

[rgd1101]

That's the way it worked back in my university. Pretty sure that's the way it works in other companies as well, if it didn't the employees (like his friend) would have no access to the keys and only the system administrator would be able to hand them out. Also they were not student licenses.

Which university? I think Microsoft would like to have a talk with them.

 

[ttocsmij]

That's not precisely how it works USAFRet. Also why does everyone care so much, not like he's "stealing" and even if he was, screw Microsoft.

He _is_ violating the terms of the agreement and the real problem is that this is exactly the kind of thing that M$ used to twist arms on Capital Hill (as in Congress) to get all these digital protection rights laws passed so they, M$, could set us up for the ultimate screw job: turning consumer computing into a monthly subscription (like the screw job they've been giving corporate America for decades). Or haven't you noticed them herding the sheeple onto new computers:

• recent M$ announcement that new hardware -- HARDWARE?! -- will only be supported on WinX and later
• WinX is likely the last step before going completely "online" OS with your PC just being a dumb terminal to the Internet with fees to access the OS (M$) and the Internet (ISP) and any other "software" you want to use (vendor of choice).
• the premiere M$ program, Office, will shortly _only_ be available by subscription (already Access is only available on the rental version)
• OS support cycles are being reduced from the typical 5-10 year time frame to 18 months!! It's taken corporate America a decade to do XP to Win7. Perhaps big mama M$ will open a whole new department to a$$i$t companies in meeting their new support demands. You think?!

The funny part is that I was there at the beginning of personal computing ... and I suspect I'll be there at the end of personal computing (when it turns into subscription-based computing for updating one's social media and viewing kitty clips). It was a great ride.