@DavidY It is only an OEM version of Windows that is tied to the specific hardware with which it was sold, irrespective of whether the upgrade to Windows 10 has been taken. A retail version of Windows (which ship69 has) can be transferred to another PC provided that it is de-activated from the previous one, i.e. it should ever be used on more than one machine at any time.
Yes if it was a retail version of windows 10, but I think ship69 has a retail version of 8.1 and hoping that by upgrading that to Windows 10, the Windows 10 licence can be transferred across.
I don't think the free upgrade works that way, because at the point of upgrading, the digital entitlement is based on the hardware of the upgraded machine (in this case, an older one), not the product key.
Certainly ship69 has rights to transfer the retail version of 8.1 on another machine, but I'm not sure that Windows 10-upgraded-from-8.1 will transfer in the same way, at least not by my reading of the Win10 free upgrade offer details (when the upgrade was current).
My understanding is that Win 10 is now linked to your Microsoft account ( assuming you're using one) rather than the hardware. Certainly, mine states: "Windows is activated with a digital licence linked to your Microsoft account." and I upgraded (for free) from an OEM edition of Win 7. Furthermore, a month or so ago I upgraded my motherboard, CPU, graphics card, and hard drive (basically a new PC) and retained my Windows license, although I did have to use the "activation troubleshooter" to transfer it across. (see here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/...troubleshooter )
Apologies if this has already been said, as I have to confess I haven't read the entire thread.
Cliff
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