Windows Product Key Now Being Stored in BIOS for Windows®10? Implications?

[GuccizBud]

Hi all.

It's my understanding that, starting with Windows 8 and thus for Windows 10 as well, Microsoft changed the way the Windows Product Key works, in that it's now encrypted in BIOS (for OEM machines). This would seem to indicate that the OS has become tied to the hardware. If this is true, then if someone owned such an OEM system that was preloaded with Windows 10, does this mean it's no longer possible for that individual to swap out the motherboard (and CPU, should it matter) with higher performing hardware and still have the OS activated with the original Product Key? (Prior to Windows 8 there would not have been a problem because the Product Key wasn't in the BIOS).

I did see a few threads here on Tom's HW pertaining to Windows 10 Product Key but they mainly had to do with recovering it, and in this case that isn't an issue.

Couple of final points ᎓ I anticipate the possibility that the OEM can "fix" that issue for a fee, but what I'm wondering is if Microsoft's new Product Key methodology has essentially blocked the upgrade of major hardware components unless  a fee is paid. Finally, no doubt hacker-type solutions of questionable legality do exist (and some whose illegality is obvious), but I'm asking what the situation would be for the average legality-minded technologically-challenged (lol ) individual.

 

[USAFRet]

An OEM license was always tied to that original hardware. Going back to at least Vista.

As of the recent Anniversary update (v 1607), you can associate a Windows license with a Microsoft account, rather than being tied to particular hardware.
Read more here: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-3164428/windows-build-1607-activation.html#18490019

 

[dextermat]

Hi,

Yes and now, OEM version are tied to mobo. Most likely if you have a branded computer, you cannot swap motherboards and use the original windows.

Therefore, you can add ram, hard drive and cpu but not the motherboard.
At some point, when you added ram, you had to reactivate windows and usually when fine over internet, in some occasion the user needed to call MS.

 

[GuccizBud]

An OEM license was always tied to that original hardware. Going back to at least Vista.

Reply from OP :

Thx for the replies . . . I'd like to clarify though, because something is amiss somewhere.

One system I have consists of Windows 7 on a Lenovo desktop. The original motherboard was H81 and the CPU an i3-4130, and I eventually swapped the mobo for an H97 and the CPU for an i5-4690. Anyway I was able to use the same Windows 7 Product Key afterward, and it's my understanding that for Windows 7 and before, Microsoft wasn't encrypting the Product Key in the BIOS, it was just encrypted in the Registry (in HKLM \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows NT \ Current Version , though it's encrypted as I said). This is just another way of saying that, before, the Product Key was tied to the HDD as far as hardware goes, if you see what I mean, and not to the mobo through the BIOS.

My reasoning was that the Product Key had "re-worked" with Windows 7 because despite upgrading the mobo and CPU, it was still the same HDD I was using … and therefore the same Registry. But from Windows 8 onward Microsoft has definitely ALSO been encrypting the Product Key in BIOS ( i.e. in addition to the Registry). This is what I mean by the Product Key being tied to the mobo only since Windows 8, not before.

But you guys are saying it was always tied to the original hardware, going back to at least Vista. That runs counter to pretty much everything I wrote here. I'm not saying I'm 100% sure I'm right, or I wouldn't be asking the question, but can anyone make sense of the discrepancies? Which parts are right and which are wrong?

 

[Colif]

All windows 10 home PC now show the same generic product key, I don't think it stores another one on machine anywhere as its stored on a Microsoft server instead. When the upgrade occurred the product key that was on machine was stored on a server,along side a code that matches the hardware on the machine at the time and was matched to a Digital entitlement so that you can always reinstall win 10 on that machine again. Since 1607 you can also match the digital entitlement to your Microsoft Account (the email address you gave Microsoft when you registered for the upgrade) so if you swap the motherboard or probably CPU, you can use that digital entitlement to activatel win 10 on new hardware.

Microsoft have replaced the product key with a digital entitlement and as such, all product keys on win 10 machines are meaningless now

 

[USAFRet]

Being encrypted in the BIOS or not has nothing to do with the licensing, and what it is tied to.

The HDD is irrelevant. You can reinstall, on a new HDD, with the other hardware remaining the same. Hard drives die. They know this.
The license was never linked to a particular hard drive.

You can read the relevant licensing here, straight from MS:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/legal/IntellectualProperty/UseTerms/Default.aspx

 

[GuccizBud]

Being encrypted in the BIOS or not has nothing to do with the licensing, and what it is tied to.

The HDD is irrelevant. You can reinstall, on a new HDD, with the other hardware remaining the same. Hard drives die. They know this.
The license was never linked to a particular hard drive.

You can read the relevant licensing here, straight from MS:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/legal/IntellectualProperty/UseTerms/Default.aspx

Didn't reply to this at the time, but I do know that licensing isn't directly tied to any one HDD. What I meant was that before the BIOS came into the equation, the licensing was apparently only in the Registry, and as the Registry is basically a part of the OS which in turn is on the HDD, I was trying to say that (a) it's as if the licensing is indirectly (not directly) tied to the HDD via the fact of the Registry being physically located on the HDD, and (b) my personal experience of swapping out the mobo and CPU but keeping the same HDD—ergo the same physical copy of Windows and the same Registry—and still having Windows work fine, supports this. And what I was basically asking was what the ramifications are now, seeing that the BIOS has been introduced into the equation.

Since my original post I learned a lot, and over that span of time I did manage to answer my own question … so one example of how things have changed follows.

There exists a certain "Windows loader" type software whose purpose is to ( illegitimately ) activate Windows 7, something it does remarkably well and more reliably than any other tool I've seen for this purpose. It accomplishes this by working in similar fashion as a rootkit in a sense (for those interested ᎓ by injecting an ACPI SLIC table into the RAM-cached version of the BIOS during boot) in order to defeat the Windows 7 activation process.

This tool was rendered useless in Windows 8 because Windows 8 (and now 10) uses a machine-specific key that is unique to each system, and can therefore only be used by that specific system — one example of how the BIOS playing a role in activation of the OS, a factor only since the introduction of Windows 8, changed matters.

 

[hang-the-9]

An OEM license was always tied to that original hardware. Going back to at least Vista.

Reply from OP :

Thx for the replies . . . I'd like to clarify though, because something is amiss somewhere.

One system I have consists of Windows 7 on a Lenovo desktop. The original motherboard was H81 and the CPU an i3-4130, and I eventually swapped the mobo for an H97 and the CPU for an i5-4690. Anyway I was able to use the same Windows 7 Product Key afterward, and it's my understanding that for Windows 7 and before, Microsoft wasn't encrypting the Product Key in the BIOS, it was just encrypted in the Registry (in HKLM \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows NT \ Current Version , though it's encrypted as I said). This is just another way of saying that, before, the Product Key was tied to the HDD as far as hardware goes, if you see what I mean, and not to the mobo through the BIOS.

My reasoning was that the Product Key had "re-worked" with Windows 7 because despite upgrading the mobo and CPU, it was still the same HDD I was using … and therefore the same Registry. But from Windows 8 onward Microsoft has definitely ALSO been encrypting the Product Key in BIOS ( i.e. in addition to the Registry). This is what I mean by the Product Key being tied to the mobo only since Windows 8, not before.

But you guys are saying it was always tied to the original hardware, going back to at least Vista. That runs counter to pretty much everything I wrote here. I'm not saying I'm 100% sure I'm right, or I wouldn't be asking the question, but can anyone make sense of the discrepancies? Which parts are right and which are wrong?

The OEM license has always been tied to the computer it was originally installed on, which for all practical purposes means the motherboard. There were other situations when changing hardware would cause it to lose activation, but you need to replace like 3 things at once or something. The fact that you could often re-use that key if you replaced the motherboard does not change the license terms. If you use strict license wording, when you replaced the motherboard (especially to a different model), you need a new OEM license purchased. Microsoft support for activation has always been flexible to the OEM licenses though since it's pretty common to need to replace a motherboard in a dead system, and they just allow an activation of the same key again on that new motherboard.

What you are talking about is just how the license key is stored, which is not the same as "being tied to the hardware". You can be physically tied to the hardware and tied to the hardware with the license agreement, which is where your confusion about things is. Yes, HOW and WHERE they key is stored and checked has changed. The fact that the OEM keys are only valid on the original setup has not changed.