I just bought a new notebook and upgraded from Home to Pro (Windows 10) using an old license key. This yields a "digital license". Now it appears I was too fast in the sense that I need to send the laptop back for a replacement. The replacement will again come with the Home version of Windows 10. What do I need to do to "deactivate' my license key on the laptop I'm sending back and then "activate" it on the replacement?
Please read through the introductory text in these two tutorials.
Uninstall Product Key and Deactivate Windows 10
Use Activation Troubleshooter in Windows 10
If you then have a specific question, please ask.
Note too that linking your activation to a MS live id (tutorial) makes activating a new PC easier, and the original license needs retail rights.
Determine if Windows License Type is OEM, Retail, or Volume
I thought my question was very specific. General information is not really useful since it covers most common situations, but invariably leaves out others.
Right now my laptop runs Windows 10 Pro that is "activated with a digital license". The original OEM system was Windows 10 Home with some OEM key. If I run Produkey, it shows the "BIOS OEM Key" (I suppose that's the original, factory installed key) and Windows 10 Pro key. However, for the Pro version it does not show the key that I entered, instead it just shows the generic key VK7JG-... that you can find all over support forums including this one. If I run the "slmgr -dli" command I get "Retail channel" but the partial license would be the same generic one.
The key that I entered was originally a Windows 7 Ultimate key (not OEM!) from an old build that was recycled long time ago. In fact, I have a number of those old keys, but some of them did not work on this laptop, while one did. I am sure I used one of them on my wife's laptop, but again, there is no way to recover which one after it has been converted into a "digital license" (or is there?).
Now, what I am asking is how can I transfer this digital license to a replacement laptop preferably without using any Microsoft account. The general tutorial suggests that I should deactivate Windows and then try to activate it on the new laptop but that may fail and I might need to activate by phone. I don't understand "may", it's not random right? I also don't understand how to do it by phone since when I tried other old keys that did not work, there was no option to call anybody.
And thank you so very much for your polite reply and criticism.
May I point out you failed to discriminate between local and MS live id accounts in your query?
Further, I had no idea if you knew what those tutorials tell you.
Good luck.
Sorry, I did not know that licensing depends on the kind of account I am using to login into Windows. Like I said in the above post, I would like to transfer the license without using a Microsoft account if at all possible. The tutorials do indicate that tying the license to a Microsoft account simplifies the procedure, but do not state what to do otherwise.
On a side note, I am not criticizing anyone. This is a forum where people volunteer their time to help others and I appreciate it. However, if the answer is unclear to me or seems unhelpful to me personally, I see no harm in asking again.
@dalchina gave you the answers to the questions you asked in the OP. But here's some more information now that you have clarified that you don't want to use a Microsoft Account.
1. You can't remove the digital license for Windows 10 for the old computer. It is stored permanently on Microsoft's Activation Servers. If you want to deactivate the Windows 10 Pro on it, you can run slmgr /upk but that does nothing to remove the Windows 10 Pro digital license stored for that computer on Microsoft's Servers.
2. When you get the new computer, upgrade the Windows 10 Home to Pro by:
a) Disconnect the computer from all sources of internet. Turn off WiFi and/or remove ethernet cable.
b) Upgrade Home to Pro by going to the activation screen under Updates and Security in Settings and change the product key to the generic Windows 10 Pro product key VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T. You will probably get an error, just ignore it, reboot the computer, you will be upgraded to Pro.
c) Reconnect the computer to the internet.
d) Activate the Windows 10 Pro using one of your Windows 7 Pro product keys.
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