Consquences of Motherboard change out

My current MB is Sata II and usb 2.0. I plan a MB swap that will re-use the cpu/memory and associated hardware to get Sata III & USB 3.0 and other updated features.

I hot swap ssd's to either run W10 RTM or W10 insider on this desktop but keep a HDD to use as data for both systems.

Will a repair install work or will I have to clean install W10 and install all my apps/programs.

What will this do to activation since "hardware" changed and the ability to get back on insider?

Read this post, will throw some light on this subject....
My Windows 10 Online Support Experience with Activation. : Windows10

You cannot transfer the Windows 10 activation to the new motherboard (unless you can convince Microsoft to do it over the phone). In order to activate Windows 10 on the new motherboard you will need a product key to enter. The product key can be a Windows 7/8/8.1 retail product key - if it has not been blocked from automatic internet activation by Microsoft. Or it can be a Windows 10 retail product key. Obviously the product key will have to be for a matching edition/version (IE: home or pro, regular Windows, "N" Windows or Single Language).

If you try to activate with a Windows 7/8/8.1 product key and you get a return that says the product key is in use on another computer, then you will have to install a copy of 7/8/8.1 on the new motherboard, activate that via the phone activation line, then you can use the same product key to activate Windows 10. I would recommend just a separate partition on a HDD for the Windows 7/8/8.1 activation then just go back to the original Windows 10 and activate that.

kingstonian said:

Read this post, will throw some light on this subject....
My Windows 10 Online Support Experience with Activation. : Windows10

Thanks for that, a very good read and the conversation after it.

NavyLCDR said:

You cannot transfer the Windows 10 activation to the new motherboard (unless you can convince Microsoft to do it over the phone). In order to activate Windows 10 on the new motherboard you will need a product key to enter. The product key can be a Windows 7/8/8.1 retail product key - if it has not been blocked from automatic internet activation by Microsoft. Or it can be a Windows 10 retail product key. Obviously the product key will have to be for a matching edition/version (IE: home or pro, regular Windows, "N" Windows or Single Language).

If you try to activate with a Windows 7/8/8.1 product key and you get a return that says the product key is in use on another computer, then you will have to install a copy of 7/8/8.1 on the new motherboard, activate that via the phone activation line, then you can use the same product key to activate Windows 10. I would recommend just a separate partition on a HDD for the Windows 7/8/8.1 activation then just go back to the original Windows 10 and activate that.

Thanks for that. The w10 rtm version is an upgrade from W8/W8.1. The original MS package has a 32 bit and a 64 bit DVD inside. Looks like I might try a reflect 8.1 image to a spare HDD, capture the product key etc and see where that leads me. (should have done that before W10 ) Try again with this 8.1 image on the new motherboard, don't believe W8.1 is as fussy as W10?? IF not, suffer thru Win8/8.1/10 install. The w10 insider SSD should be a much easier change over.

Part of the original question, activation aside, How is the new motherboard gong to act with a W10 ssd configured to the original motherboard?

meebers said:

Try again with this 8.1 image on the new motherboard, don't believe W8.1 is as fussy as W10?? IF not, suffer thru Win8/8.1/10 install. The w10 insider SSD should be a much easier change over.

Part of the original question, activation aside, How is the new motherboard gong to act with a W10 ssd configured to the original motherboard?

Windows 8.1 wasn't as fussy with activation. You can run showkeyplus from this forum on your existing Windows. If it was an upgrade, it will tell you the product key of the OS that it came from.

Showkey - Windows 10 Forums

Windows 10 generally seems to adapt to new hardware just fine. If you want to, you can remove hardware specific information from the Windows installed on the SSD just before moving it by:

Open elevated ("run as administrator") command prompt
Type CD %WINDIR%\system32\sysprep <enter>
Type Sysprep /generalize /shutdown <enter>

When the computer shuts down, move the SSD to the new computer. You would probably be OK if you didn't generalize the Windows before moving it, but it wouldn't hurt to do it either.

NavyLCDR said:

Windows 8.1 wasn't as fussy with activation. You can run showkeyplus from this forum on your existing Windows. If it was an upgrade, it will tell you the product key of the OS that it came from.

Showkey - Windows 10 Forums

Windows 10 generally seems to adapt to new hardware just fine. If you want to, you can remove hardware specific information from the Windows installed on the SSD just before moving it by:

Open elevated ("run as administrator") command prompt
Type CD %WINDIR%\system32\sysprep <enter>
Type Sysprep /generalize /shutdown <enter>

When the computer shuts down, move the SSD to the new computer. You would probably be OK if you didn't generalize the Windows before moving it, but it wouldn't hurt to do it either.

Tx again. Printing that info out for when the time comes.

my motherboard x79 asus rampage iv extreme. i got windows 10 for free cause i've been using windows 7 for the past years.

if i get a new motherboard \ computer in the x99 class. would the activation key for the windows 7 work when i'm installing windows 10 on the new motherboard?

i'd just use the phone activation?

how do i know if the activation key is blocked \ inactive by microsoft's systems?

m0nk3n said:

if i get a new motherboard \ computer in the x99 class. would the activation key for the windows 7 work when i'm installing windows 10 on the new motherboard?

First - is it an OEM Windows 7 product key, or a retail product key? If it was an OEM product key then it legally dies with the old motherboard and cannot be transferred to the new motherboard. If it is a retail product key then you might be able to use it to activate the same version and edition of Windows 10. You would install Windows 10, clicking "i don't have a product key" or skip or "do this later" when asked for a product key. Then after installation go to the activation screen, click change product key, and enter the Windows 7 product key to activate Windows.

m0nk3n said:

i'd just use the phone activation?

First you would try online activation using what I stated above. If you get an error that says the Windows 7 product key is already in use on another computer then you have to install Windows 7 on the new motherboard and activate via phone activation before you could activate Windows 10. At that point, I would recommend you capture the genuineticket.xml file by running the Windows 10 gatherosstate.exe program (there's a tutorial here on how to do that). You can use an extra partition or hard drive for the Windows 7 install/activation - you don't have to erase the Windows 10.

Clean Install Windows 10 Directly without having to Upgrade First - Windows 10 Forums

m0nk3n said:

how do i know if the activation key is blocked \ inactive by microsoft's systems?

When you try to do an automatic online activation and it comes back with an error.

it is a retail. came in a box with 2 dvd's with windows 7. 1 for 32 bit 1 for 64 bit.