Transfer Win 10 license to new PC. What happens with the old PC?

cereberus said:

When you transfer a licence from old pc to new pc, as @NavyLCDR says, you will still remain activated on old PC.

According to the EU, you are supposed to remove Windows from old pc. However if you do not, nothing bad will happen, and in the end, it is really a matter of personal conscience if you keep windows on old pc.

Frankly, MS do not seem to care that much, partly as their main objective is to keep users using Windows - they make money out of services such as Office 365, Azure, adverts etc.

In any case, the cost of policing the few transgressions is probably more than a licence is worth.

However, they do try and stop volume licenses being used illegitimately, as that leads to wholesale piracy e.g. they can afford to ignore one licence being use against terms of EULA, but not hundreds. It is all a matter of perspective.

For avoidance of doubt, I am not encouraging any users to flout terms of the EULA but merely explaining the facts.

Some say, replies like this encourage piracy, but I counter that I can explain how guns and bullets work, but that is not condoning murder LOL.

Thank you . I have a few other options as well, including downgrading a Pro licence to Home. Just checking different options.

Try3 said:

Yes.

I think I once saw a claimed procedure for downgrading to Home without a clean install [posted somewhere online] but the procedure instilled so little confidence that I don't seem to have even kept a link to it.

Denis

Thank you. A clean install will probably be the way to go.

NavyLCDR said:

If you transfer the license from the old computer to the new computer using your Microsoft account, nothing happens to the old computer, it remains activated.

Have you tested that?

SIW2 said:

Have you tested that?

Yes, I have. You are allowed to "transfer" the license 4 or 5 times, but it actually copies it, not transfers it. After the 4 or 5 times it is copied to different computers, then it will fail to transfer again, but the original computer stays activated.

NavyLCDR said:

Yes, I have. You are allowed to "transfer" the license 4 or 5 times, but it actually copies it, not transfers it. After the 4 or 5 times it is copied to different computers, then it will fail to transfer again, but the original computer stays activated.

Only the original stays activated ?

Hoggorm,

If you try to use the same product key on two computers at once, when you try to use it on the second computer it will tell you that it is already in use on the first computer. The way to avoid that is to change the product key on the first computer to the generic product key for that edition of Windows:
Generic Product Keys to Install Windows 10 Editions

This is also the same way to change an OEM install to a retail install - you change the OEM product key to the generic retail product key.

SIW2 said:

Only the original stays activated ?

They all stay activated. I have never seen Microsoft revoke a digital license once it has been acquired. And Microsoft allows changing the digital license from OEM to Retail and back to OEM at will simply by changing the generic product key.

NavyLCDR said:

Hoggorm,

If you try to use the same product key on two computers at once, when you try to use it on the second computer it will tell you that it is already in use on the first computer. The way to avoid that is to change the product key on the first computer to the generic product key for that edition of Windows:
Generic Product Keys to Install Windows 10 Editions

This is also the same way to change an OEM install to a retail install - you change the OEM product key to the generic retail product key.



They all stay activated. I have never seen Microsoft revoke a digital license once it has been acquired. And Microsoft allows changing the digital license from OEM to Retail and back to OEM at will simply by changing the generic product key.

Thank you NavyLCDR. One plan is to deactivate the license on a Win 10 Home PC, and use it on the new computer. I was hoping to avoid any issues where the license was still in use. Your suggestion to enter a generic product key might do this. How long will such a key be valid? And what are the limitations for its use?

Hoggorm said:

Thank you NavyLCDR. One plan is to deactivate the license on a Win 10 Home PC, and use it on the new computer. I was hoping to avoid any issues where the license was still in use. Your suggestion to enter a generic product key might do this. How long will such a key be valid? And what are the limitations for its use?

Lifetime and you can re-activate the same edition of Windows 10/11 on the same computer unlimited times.

NavyLCDR said:

Lifetime and you can re-activate the same edition of Windows 10/11 on the same computer unlimited times.

Is this legal? How do they stop piracy if anyone can use generic product keys?

cereberus said:

Totally legitimate once you have created the first digital licence.

You cannot activate windows on a pc using generic key if it has never been genuinely activated initially.

What is stopping people from buying once license, removing it, adding it to the next computer, while adding a generic key to the first, then do the same on conputer number two and so on?