How to tell if my Win 10 Pro license is tied to a Microsoft account?

Bree said:

It is sufficient to have signed into an app such as the Store with your Microsoft account for your PC to be recorded in your Microsoft account under Devices....

Only app I know of is the Xbox App which I had a subscription for, I am assuming that is good enough.

Bree said:

You are unlikely to have an activation issue, but if you do then you can use the Activation Troubleshooter, tell it you have changed hardware, and point it to your machine in 'Devices' on your Microsoft account.

Use Activation Troubleshooter in Windows 10

Thanks.

Seems like Win 10 is on a Local Account, but also linked to a Microsoft Account as of now. I was assuming it could only be one or the other. I see my desktop under my Microsoft Account, but it does not specify which version of Windows it has or a serial number for it (I am not sure if it is supposed to?).

Bree said:

no, even with a local account if you sign in to your MS account with any app it gets recorded in Devices. All my machines use only local accounts, but they are all listed.



There is no serial number or key recorded. If you click 'See details'....



...then you should see the 'OS Edition'. This is all the information the Activation Troubleshooter requires to be able to re-activate your machine, if required.

Thanks.

OS Edition: Windows 10 Professional
Version: 2009
OS Build: 10.0.19044.2006
System type: To Be Filled By O.E.M.

Doesn't seem to indicate if this is OEM, but if I recall this was an OEM license that was upgraded to 10 from 7.

Bree said:

That 'System type' information was read from the registry, which in turn read it from the bios. It actually is meant to tell you the model of the PC, but some OEM's are lazy and don't bother to put it in their bios. You'll see the same text as 'System Model' if you run the System Information app.

Thanks. In summary, with the information I provided, I have a local account and my copy of Win 10 Pro is linked to my Microsoft account.

If I do have an activation issue, these steps should work:

Use Activation Troubleshooter in Windows 10

Correct? Just want to make sure I don't need to do anything else beforehand.

Bree said:

Yes, that is correct. You are as prepared as you can be, but hopefully you won't need it.

I've not changed a cpu myself, but I've seen others report that it didn't affect activation. Changing a motherboard would though.

Okay thank you, will post back if I have any issues.

Upgraded to the new CPU, so far no issues with Windows activation or Office activation. Marked this as Solved.