I have recently purchased a new PC. It comes with a copy of W10 home installed (not activated) on a 1TB HDD but I also have a 240GB SSD installed.
I was wondering if it is possible to copy my retail version of W10 pro (activated by digital license) on my old pc onto the new ssd and what steps I need to take to do this?
Many thanks,
Pete
Welcome to the forum. Are you scrapping the old pc. You could do it but likley it wont activate a lot depends on the licence is there a reason why you want the pro version instead of using the new one for most people there isnt that much difference
Thank you. I just wanted to use my W10 pro as the new home version isn't activated and it comes without a code as I had to pay an extra £90 and I thought I could use my own. Can I copy the os on the hdd to the ssd. I might just buy a W10 home activation code if my pro doesn't work
Its rare for windows to come with a new pc and wont then activat free. If you copy your old windows you cant then use it on 2 pcs. You can clone the old drive to the ssd Its good at finding new hardware but there isnt a guarantee it will work and higlet likely it wont activate
Your first best bet would be to enter your windows 10 pro retail product key on the activation screen of the new computer and see if it accepts it and upgrades that from Home to Pro. Then a digital license for Windows 10 Pro for the new computer will be saved with Microsoft and you will then just need to remove Windows 10 Pro from the old computer to comply with the EULA.
You can then certainly move the old Windows 10 Pro installation to the new computer and it will stay activated because the digitial license for Windows 10 Pro for the new computer will be established.
And, BTW - it violates the EULA for someone to sell you a PC with Windows 10 on it that is not activated.
Welcome to TenForums Peteb2018.
Where exactly did you buy this PC? A brand new PC is normally supplied by the OEM with Windows pre-installed and activated. Sounds like even though this PC may 'new' to you, it is actually a refurbished machine that the seller has installed Windows 10 on, and was asking 'extra' for a W10 licence.
If so, the first thing to check is if this PC was originally supplied with an OEM licence for any version of Windows. For a machine built for Windows 7 there would be a CoA sticker on it (usually on the underside, sometimes hidden beneath the battery). For Windows 8 and above there is a key embedded in the bios. This can be confirmed by reading the bios key with ShowKey Plus. It can also tell you what edition a Windows 7 key is for.
ShowKeyPlus - Windows 10 Forums
If this PC does have a key for Windows 7, 8 or 8.1 (or even 10) then a clean install of the Windows 10 edition matching the key (Home or Pro) can be activated using that key. If an 8/8.1/10 key is embedded in the bios you don't even need to type in a key, Setup should find the key in the bios, use it to choose the correct edition to install, then activate it.
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