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You'll loose activation. You can reactivate with the Activation Troubleshooter. To be able to use that you first need to link your digital licence to your Microsoft account.
Use Activation Troubleshooter in Windows 10
You'll loose activation. You can reactivate with the Activation Troubleshooter. To be able to use that you first need to link your digital licence to your Microsoft account.
Use Activation Troubleshooter in Windows 10
In case this help, I keep this text file for when I do mother board upgrades(no need when only CPU on same chipset):
Also, Windows 10 and 11 are awesome when you use the same system disk after upgrading, at first boot it takes a while, but Windows will install the drivers needed, and then you can use RAPR(DriverStoreExplorer) to delete the old ones.
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So below are the steps to remove activation key from the system:
Log in to the system with admin account and open CMD with Run as admin rights.
slmgr /upk It stands for uninstall product key. The /upk parameter uninstalls the product key of the current Windows edition. Once this command will execute you need to restart, the system will be in an Unlicensed state unless a new product key is installed.
Then go to your Online Micrsoft account and then remove the device from your account: https://account.microsoft.com/devices
Once all done above, you can see your Windows actvation properties status as not available.
Build your new system.
Enter your key in Windows.
1. If the old computer is activated with a unique product key, write it down.
2. Change the product key on the old computer to the retail generic product key for that edition of Windows (IE: Home or Pro).
3. Make sure the digital license for the old computer is linked to a Microsoft Account.
These steps will release the product key from the old computer, make the digital license for the old computer a retail license, and make it available to transfer via a Microsoft Account.
Activate Windows 10/11 on the new computer by:
1. Entering the unique product key -or-
2..Use the same Microsoft Account and the Activation Troubleshooter to copy the digital license from the old computer to the new computer.
You rest your case on a screenshot that can be obtained from any one of hundreds of millions computers. It proves nothing. The fact is that if you want to retain the ability to transfer a digital license via a Microsoft Account, you cannot delete the old computer from that Microsoft Account before you transfer it! Common sense.
If you uninstalled the key, then reactivate it on a new system, you will get a new digital license.
I completely agree. But what if the old computer does not have a unique product key? What if it was an upgrade from Windows 7 and only has the generic product key? What if it was a clean install of Windows 10 done based on the digital license and only has the generic product key? By removing that computer from your Microsoft Account you have now made its digital license impossible to transfer to the new computer. So, what is the necessity for deactivating the old computer and removing it from the Microsoft Account anyway? There is no necessity to do so and all you are doing is limiting your options for activating the new computer.
I've got 17 devices listed on my Microsoft Account right now.
I see what you're getting at, this was a retail key.
By the way I've also done the above to reuse a Win 8.1 pro retail from a VM, on to a real system too.
That's news. Good news. I wish I had known that about six month ago when I inherited some beaten up, dirty/dusty, cracked screen or cracked case, low-budget low spec laptops with Vista or Win 7 OEM licenses. I pulled out the hard drives or SSDs, but then recycled the rest. The machines by themselves were pretty useless. The owner was a real slob.
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Impressive.