Windows 10 queries

Hi, often asked questions.
How to Use Your Free Windows 10 License After Changing Your PC’s Hardware

(I searched for
can I freely reinstall Windows 10 once activated
)

1. You shouldn't need your Win 7 license unless perhaps (outside possibility) you have future activation issues and needed to contact MS.
2. You can reinstall Win 10 freely and also change your disk with impunity.
3. That should require a new license as activation is keyed to the MBO. You could always try special pleading with MS should your PC fail.. I'm sure someone will be able to comment on that.

The Windows 7 key is only ever stored in the Windows registry. This utility may show you what it is/was, https://www.tenforums.com/software-ap...7-showkey.html
If your upgrade was done from a factory OEM install the Windows 7 OEM-SLP key is useless to you anyway. It can not be used to clean install Windows 10..
If you did the free upgrade and then activated Windows 10, that device(PC) now has a Digital License stored on the Windows activation server.
You can now clean install that same version of Windows 10 and do a skip when prompted for key. It will then activate with the Digital License.

Lord zaeon said:

If you use Microsoft's media creation tool to create the iso or USB install of Windows 10 you get the option to male 10 install on another computer. So a clean install after upgrading CPU etc or Motherboard... Should be possible by using that route. (I'd also make the iso/usb install for both 32 and 64bit that's also an option from the creation tool) The install done with this iso also activates to the computer it's installed on so not sure what the key will be there???

The digital license you get with the free upgrade is tied to the hardware ID of the PC. A CPU swap shouldn't be an issue. Swap out the motherboard and it likely won't activate. If it's a completely different make and model it won't activate for sure. It will appear to be a new, different PC and won't have a valid digital license tied to it. If you install and don't enter a product key, windows looks for a matching digital license for that hardware on the activation server. If it finds one it activates, if it doesn't it won't activate. You then need to enter a valid product code to activate. As mentioned, you get a generic key with the free upgrade. You could enter that key when doing the install. It will let you install Windows 10, It won't activate unless there already is a digital license on the activation server though.

The retail (full version) will allow you to install to a new PC or to a PC with a motherboard upgrade. Transfer rights exist of retail and don't exist on OEM.