[SOLVED] Would a windos license work after swapping out os drive?

[Zakya]

I have a windos 7 key that I can use. I recently upgraded most of my pc, that is running windows 10, and lost the licence. Could i install windows 7 on a random drive in the new pc, upgrade to 10, and then swap in the drive with my old os and data? I'm not quite sure if the key validation happens on thep or online.

 

[Aeacus]

Swapping OS drive won't make you to loose your Win activation. I've swapped my OS drive 4-5 times (albeit, each time doing OS clone) and my Win7 Pro OEM key is still valid. Of course, nowadays, i'm running Win10 Pro, which i upgraded from my Win7. And my Win7 key was enough to validate/activate Win10 as well.

MoBo replacement is what invalidates Win key. But that depends on a key as well. OEM key is tied to MoBo. Retail key you can deactive from your M$ account and use it again, up to 5 times (if i remember the usage value correctly).

 

[Karadjgne]

Back in the day, all the way upto Win7/8.1, You had personal possession of the key. It came printed on the book, printed on a sticker on the case etc. With the switch to Win10+, Microsoft finally got tired of trying to chase ppl buying 1 key and using it on half a dozen pc's, so They keep the key now, it's listed under the Microsoft Account you had to set up.

That gives Microsoft a much easier way to keep track of users keys and can spot a duplicate in a heartbeat with little to no effort.

When you upgrade to 10 from 7/8.1, your Win7 key is changed, and Microsoft reapplies that changed key to your account as a new Win10 key. So if you change an old pc, or build a new pc, you can goto Microsoft account, remove or change the old and re-register the new under the same key. This invalidates the windows activation on the old pc, if there is one.

What it boils down to is you as a user no longer own the key, you just rent it with a one time payment, from Microsoft, who only allows it to be activated on a single pc at any given time.

 

[Aeacus]

What it boils down to is you as a user no longer own the key, you just rent it with a one time payment, from Microsoft, who only allows it to be activated on a single pc at any given time.

This makes me wonder, what happens when Micro$oft decides to revoke the key at one point? E.g end the "rental agreement" to say so.

 

[drea.drechsler]

I have a windos 7 key that I can use. I recently upgraded most of my pc, that is running windows 10, and lost the licence. Could i install windows 7 on a random drive in the new pc, upgrade to 10, and then swap in the drive with my old os and data? I'm not quite sure if the key validation happens on thep or online.

The licence is pegged to the motherboard. If that remains the same you'll have no trouble installing and validating your Windows 10. A suggestion is to create a Microsoft account and peg the machine to that to make it easy in the future.

My son had an old Phenom II system he'd installed Win10 in. It had languished in a closet for several years after we upgraded. Then a few months ago I took it out because it had a good AM3+ motherboard and put in an old FX processor, some new 1866 DDR3 memory, SATA SSD drives and RX480 GPU that had been passed down after updates. A total machine re-build after several years but installed Win10 and it validated right away no problems.

This makes me wonder, what happens when Micro$oft decides to revoke the key at one point? E.g end the "rental agreement" to say so.

Read the license agreement. If they can then it would be in there but as far as what happens is going to be pure speculation. Anything from getting the watermark like all other unlicensed users do now to simply refusing to start up for you is on the table: it's theirs after all.

But i doubt they can, or would even though they may have reserved the right to do as they wish. What's far more likely is they'll do as they have with windows 10: deprecate it and put it on a path to provide absolute minimal support while pushing everyone to a new OS. It's better for business to let non-support for new hardware drive people to abandon it as with Windows 7.

 

[USAFRet]

If you upgraded your Win 7 to Win 10, you no longer need, nor have, the Win 7.

Changing to a new drive in this same system, either cloning or a fresh install, you do not need the Win 10 license.
Do the clone or install, and it will activate itself when it goes online later.

 

[Zakya]

If anyone stumbles on this post, you can apparently just use a win 7 or 8 key on win 10 and it just works. Worked for me