Upgrading hardware

silverz · 06 Feb 2016

I'm looking at getting a new cpu soon, with it I will need a new motherboard and ram too.
How would I get windows 10 on to this?
I assume it will not recognise my existing license.... or will it somehow update to work perfectly fine on the new hardware (yeah it's a long shot....).
Then what happens if I need to swap hard drives at some point? I'm thinking of getting a bigger ssd soon.
Am I going to have massive problems transitioning the existing license over to new hardware? Is there some easy solution I have not seen?
If the license is not transferable, how do i get windows 10 on the new hardware? Would I be stuck having to buy a new retail copy of the os?

dalchina · 06 Feb 2016

You may need to contact MS to deactivate your current license for reuse.

Or, easier, simply try using it after you've installed Win 10 on your rebuilt system- make sure you know it. It seems MS doesn't actually keep a 100% record of what's activated on particular devices- more of a running statistic. So if you had used your license on a machine recently, then used it again on a different one, you might have problems.

Example. About 3 years ago I used my purchased Win 8 license, and last year upgraded that PC to Win 10. In the last week, since that laptop was failing, 6 years old, I bought this one, installed Win 10 and successfully used my Win 8 Pro license.

Naturally I'm not planning to keep both.. the other keeps shutting off at random...

cereberus · 06 Feb 2016

If original licence was oem, you cannot legally transfer Windows 10 to new mobo.

silverz · 06 Feb 2016

cereberus said:

If original licence was oem, you cannot legally transfer Windows 10 to new mobo.

The original license was from a retail windows 8 upgrade.

brummyfan · 06 Feb 2016

silverz said:

The original license was from a retail windows 8 upgrade.

You don't need to worry too much about upgrading your MB, I have done it in the past and activated without any problem, even if it doesn't, get in touch with MS by phone activation, it will activate your OS

cereberus · 06 Feb 2016

brummyfan said:

You don't need to worry too much about upgrading your MB, I have done it in the past and activated without any problem, even if it doesn't, get in touch with MS by phone activation, it will activate your OS

You cannot telephone activate a Windows 10 upgrade, as it uses digital entitlement, not product key activation. Telephone activation only works if you have an actual Windows 10 key.

cereberus · 06 Feb 2016

silverz said:

The original license was from a retail windows 8 upgrade.

Then installing 10 and using key should work. Apparently upgrade keys work as well as full retail keys. This is a grey area legally, but is not specifically forbidden in EULA, but you are of course legally required to remove Windows from old pc, as you still only have one licence.

lx07 · 06 Feb 2016

cereberus said:

You cannot telephone activate a Windows 10 upgrade, as it uses digital entitlement, not product key activation. Telephone activation only works if you have an actual Windows 10 key.

I have done phone activation for Windows 10 twice with Windows 8 upgrade key. The robot fails to identify your numbers from slui 4, you wait on hold to talk to a technician and explain your situation, wait again to explain it again to a level 2 technician, they ask your original key so they can check it then sign on remotely and put in a new Windows 10 key for you.

I was sometimes told that I had to re-install qualifying OS but just called back until I got the answer I wanted from a different member of staff.

whs · 06 Feb 2016

You don't have to worry. You will be OK. And for the change of the SSD, maybe this is a useful guide.

SSD - Install and Transfer the Operating System - Windows 7 Help Forums