Transferring Windows Key to another PC

Bastet said:

Thanks @NavyLCDR. I’ll leave the thread to others more capable.

It's a very widely held and promoted belief that slmgr /dlv tells the license type, so I just try to correct the info when I see it - about once a week.

Hey all!

Sorry for the late reply all, I was in the process of getting the dono pc up and running, success! Managed to get Windows 10 on it but I just checked and it isn't activated.

@Bastet
Yeah it's going to be a little hard on my other pc since the gpu is slowly or about to die. Would it be worth to just sign in, claim whatever key is on their and then sign in on the new system? Just bare with me while I try that procedure on my pc, hopefully the gpu doesn't give out completely while I try.

@BubbaW

Yeah no such thing happened, it was a really long time ago, I just remember saying my key wasn't working and the guy was all like "mam, please, I got this, just hook me up to your pc" so i did and after he keyed the code for win 10, just said "see, all good now, have a nice day" and left... Could it be likely I could sign in with that key and use it on another PC?

I guess I'll have to find out what kind of key I have first.

@Winuser

The harddrive was wiped unfortunately, I just remember saying it had windows 8 on it, would it be possible to install windows 8 then upgrade from there? Would the windows 8 still be activated if I revert back to it? All that other stuff sounds a little confusing, my drives are in my old pc, I'm using another drive for the new pc.

@Paul Black

Hey paul! thanks for the info, I bought a key on sale at my local tech store but it wasn't working. Thus I called windows and well you know the rest of the story, thanks for the info!

@AddRAM

I'm going to be using this dono pc as my main pc and so I need windows 10 activated on it :).

Honestly, worst worst case I'm just going to call Microsoft support and explain the situation, I feel very ripped off. See if they can help me again. If I can get a hold of the key it would show the validity of my case right, as well as the computer parts attached to it?

Sorry if this message is convoluted, I tried to reply to everyone as coherently as i could.

So to round everything up, first step, find out what kind of key I have yes? Sorry I got confused on what to do next while reading all your posts .

Thanks again <3

Reinstalling Windows 8 and have it activated automatically would depend. They key would have to be in the bios. I'm not sure if Windows 8.1 used the digital license for the device like Windows 10 does. If you have a retail version of Windows 8.1 or even a retail key for Windows 7 you could use that key to activate Windows 10. The key can only be used on one device.

First thing you need to do, @Vellaura, is run Showkey Plus on the computer and see what product keys are available:
ShowKeyPlus

Bastet said:

Would you recommend another cmd or program which would give a more accurate description of the version?
I would expect that If a user had OEM then upgraded for free to Win 10 that this may show Retail when it’s actually OEM.

Since Microsoft does not track where the digital license for Windows 10 came from once it is saved on their servers, it is really just up to the user to know. There can be clues in the computer's ACPI table (firmware) which Showkey Plus will show, such as the existence of a Windows 7 marker or Windows 8 or 10 product key. Those would indicate an OEM install.

The only way to know for sure is for the user to possess a product key to check. Microsoft only puts limitations on product keys. And through experimenting users have found a limit of 5 placed on the number of times a digital license can be copied from computer to computer via a Microsoft Account.

That's why the next step to determine @Vellaura's options for activating the existing Windows 10 installation on the "new" computer is to run Showkey Plus.

If "slmgr /dlv" or "slmgr /dli" shows activation via the OEM channel, then very obviously the license is OEM. But if the command shows activation via the retail channel and the partial product key shows that it is one of the generic product keys for Windows 10, then the license could be either OEM or retail. One example is that upgrades from OEM Windows 7 and 8/8.1 always get the generic Windows 10 product key activated via the retail channel.

If a user has a custom built computer and the original Windows 10 was activated with an OEM product key, then they reinstall Windows 10 with just the option to skip the product key and activate with the digital license, the generic product key gets assigned and activates via the retail channel.

Even a full OEM install from the factory using the product key embedded in firmware can be changed to activating on the retail channel simply by changing the product key to the generic product key.