If I upgrade my motherboard/CPU will my digital license be valid?  

Brink said:

Technically, you are not suppose to be able to activate an OEM license on another computer since it's non-transferable.

However, Microsoft may sometimes let it slide and allow you to active by phone. Just don't rely on it since a new motherboard is technically a different computer.

There is a grey area here. Problem is the EULA does not even mention digital licences. The digital licence transfer was only intended for failed mobos not for swapping to new pc but how can MS tell?

Digital licence transfer does not convey full retail status as it can only be used thre times (I tested this).

In the end, it seems MS do not know the history of a digital licence. One either exists or it does not.

There are so many inconsistencies now e.g. strictly if you dual boot two release versions of Windows 10 (exactly same edition and version), you need a licence for each install according to EULA, and under old product key activation that could be managed. However, with digital licences, the second installation activates automatically and a user CANNOT comply with EULA!

In the end, MS wanted to get 1 billion users and were prepared to give free upgrades to anybody who qualified. The vast majority by a long way of licences are oem preinsalled licences.

The percentage of domestic users who buy a pc without a preinstalled licence and wish to transfer a digital licence from another pc is tiny. The reality is even if they could police digital licence transfer, the cost of doing so would far exceed the revenue lost.

Why did MS make it so unactivated versions run ad infinitum in Windows 10?

It is patently obvious MS do not care - they are only interested in wholesale piracy, and do not care if an individual bends the rules (which cannot be complied with).

Any lawyer could easily defend a user who transferred a digital licence as they are not even mentioned in the EULA and MS introduced the transfer tool without any differentiation between oem or retail original status.

I personally think proving a user has done anything wrong if they originally had an oem licence would be very hard to prove.

MS either need to tighten up the way digital licences work, or conversely make it acceptable in EULA to transfer digital licences and state restrictions eg 3 times only but not between physical and virtual machines.

The present EULA has more and larger holes than Swiss Cheese!

+1 M.