Re-activating Windows 10 Pro after a motherboard replacement

Civilzed countries don't allow the restrictive practice of tying software to a particular piece of hardware.
MS are well aware of it and will obey the laws of the areas in which they operate.

cereberus said:

Ok not "the" but "a". The point was to assess if the digital licence activation troubleshooter would work.

Actually, the activation troubleshooter does allow digital licences to transfer even if original licence was oem. I have done this several times.

Whether this violates the EULA is debatable as MS introduced the troubleshooter to allow licences to be transferred to new mobos, but did not put any particular restrictions in place.

However, the digital licence transfer mechanism can only be used a limited number of times (three as far as we can tell), unlike unlimited transfer of retail standalone licences.

I remember reading some MS faq and they said the troubleshooter was not designed for transferring OS to new pcs, only new mobos which is amusing as MS define a new mobo as a new pc. As hard drives, new RAm etc. do not count as a hardware change, how can MS tell the difference?

SIW2 said:

Civilzed countries don't allow the restrictive practice of tying software to a particular piece of hardware.
MS are well aware of it and will obey the laws of the areas in which they operate.

I live in a civilized county by which I suppose you mean anywhere apart from the US. I was able to swap license but it took a few calls until I found someone who agreed.

Depending on time of day I had various call centers in different countries (all with terrible reception) but eventually they gave up and gave me a new key.

I think if you ever bought Windows (or perhaps if you did not, I never tried that) they will give up and give you a Windows 10 key just to get you off the phone.

I meant civilized in a historical sense. The protections against predatory corporate behaviour have been around a long time, and remain for the moment.

SIW2 said:

I meant civilized in a historical sense. The protections against predatory corporate behaviour have been around a long time, and remain for the moment.

I'm not trying to be political or anything I just was interested. I think you are probably correct.

Historically my birth country (England) and the country I've lived in for the last decade (France) both have blood on their shoes. Sorry about the spelling there.

Whether this has anything to do with reactivation is another thing. Probably not.

I have no idea what you are trying to say. MS will not try and prevent users from moving/selling/whatever their OS in jurisdictions where restrictive practice is not allowed. Whether such sofware is marketed as oem, retail, or whatever is irrelevant. As far as I know, that includes Western Europe, Central Europe, Southern Europe, and (I believe) India, Singapore, Malaysia,Taiwan, etc. I don't know what the situation is in the US regarding that.

There is large company by the name of Usedsoft. It sells used software in bulk to large clients - often Law firms, Government departments, police departments, Hospital groups, etc. They have clients in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Italy, India, China and Southeast Asia. I have heard they now sell in several places in Africa, South Africa and Nigeria, for example.

SIW2 said:

I have no idea what you are trying to say.

I was trying to say that transfer of OEM license is allowed in Europe but I don't know about the rest of the world where (as far as I understand from these forums) it isn't.

I wasn't very clear, sorry.

Your mention of UsedSoft is interesting - I'll check it out, thanks.

Electrojim, you can get a Windows 10 Pro OEM key on kinguin.com for 30 bucks.

Hi folks

I think the "Idea of Civilized Countries" might be in the age of the Internet a bit difficult to define -- UK probably blocks more sites than N.Korea - although I doubt whether on "Democratic terms" is N.Korea more democratic than U.K -- up to you.

Ms is usually -- like most businesses "Country Agnostic". The only requirement a commercial company has is to make a profit for its shareholders subject to the law operating within its operating area. -- that's how it has always been and always will be. If you don't like this then think where will you get your pensions from etc.

Ms isn't the evil empire -- Just think planet wide the number of I.T jobs and ancilliary services it has created -- apple certainly wouldn´t have done the same.

If you have any sort of problem with Windows activation IMO phoning up the people will bend over backwards to get the problem fixed !! although usually the robots with the key numbers you need to enter will sort it out long before you need to speak to a human.

Private businesses are the lifeblood of any country -- often providing ideas and services no state system would ever come up with -- e.g things like amazon. OK some people don't like amazon but while it's not 100% OK I much rather live in a world where I can choose between a hideous hassle to horrible shops in a boring mall or order conveniently at home with a glass of scotch in my hand and get product delivered following day.

While I like and use Linux a lot Windows also works great and just think of the millions of people now quite happily using Windows who might never have used a computer before.

Activation of Windows certainly shouldn't be a problem these days unless your source is from somewhere dubious.

Cheers
jimbo