Question about upgrading to windows 11 over a Windows 10 Pro OEM key

TWB said:

Windows 10 Version 22H2 build 19045.2788 in a Lenovo M90n-1
I have a Lenovo PC and have cloned the SSD. Both the original and the clone work perfectly.. If I upgrade the cloned drive to windows 11 using the existing windows 10 OEM key to try windows 11 out will the original drive still function fine in the system if I keep the original Windows 10 installation on it or will it bitch about the key being moved to windows 11.

Short version can I keep windows 10 on original drive; Clone the drive and have windows 11 on the clone while keeping both functional (From a Microsoft licensing perspective and actual usability) if I choose to swap the original windows 10 drive back into the system.

That's pretty much what I do. I never have the Win 10 drive and the Win 11 drive hooked up at the same time... but I think it would still work, even if I did have them both hooked up at the same time.

TWB said:

Windows 10 Version 22H2 build 19045.2788 in a Lenovo M90n-1
I have a Lenovo PC and have cloned the SSD. Both the original and the clone work perfectly.. If I upgrade the cloned drive to windows 11 using the existing windows 10 OEM key to try windows 11 out will the original drive still function fine in the system if I keep the original Windows 10 installation on it or will it bitch about the key being moved to windows 11.

Short version can I keep windows 10 on original drive; Clone the drive and have windows 11 on the clone while keeping both functional (From a Microsoft licensing perspective and actual usability) if I choose to swap the original windows 10 drive back into the system.

The licence is fully interchangeable. You will not even need to enter any key as you have a digital licence stored on line.

When you upgrade, it will detect your hardware and check online and will activate automatically.

Regarding having both drives on pc at same time, in the strictest interpretation you need a second licence according to EULA but it is crazy as pc activates automatically i.e. the activation system does not even comply with its own EULA. In essence, just forget about it - it just works. It's kind of bs as you can only use one version of windows at a time anyway.

Sometimes you can run into issues using a cloned drive as it has same drive signature as original drive and will not boot.
In this case, it is better to make an image backup (elsewhere), wipe clone drive and reinitialise, then restore image.

TWB said:

It is not my intention to have both in the system at same time, I just want to maintain a fully functional copy of my drive as is with Windows 10 Pro and have it available to swap back into system should I decide to not make the change to windows 11 permanent. Essentially an instant restore back to Windows 10 with the drive and all its software keys intact. An either / or situation not both.

Then really image backups are better - more easy to keep up to date.

TWB said:

I can appreciate that and understand that, but the rood of my question is if both drives will remain functional in the original scenario I posted. Will the original drive still function in the system if the OEM key has been updated to Win 11 on the cloned drive and I pull it out to place the unaltered Windows 10 install on the original drive back into the system. I think all the reply's to this point have implied that it should.

Yes, it will.

There is no 'upgrade' of the key or the digital license, they remain the same and are valid for both Windows 10 and Windows 11.

For safety reasons I would remove the original M.2 drive and only reattach it if you decide not to keep Win 11.

Megahertz said:

For safety reasons I would remove the original M.2 drive and only reattach it if you decide not to keep Win 11.

I must be missing the point here?