Reactivating Windows after cloning

SierraPorter said:

II want to clone and try another drive but am worried about reactivating Windows if i like that drive.

When Windows 10 has been activated on a PC it gets a digital license that's stored on Microsoft's activation servers.. This license is linked to the hardware ID of the PC, meaning you can clean install the same edition of Windows 10 (Home or Pro) without providing a key if asked and it will activate from the digital license as soon as it can contact the activation servers.

The drive plays no part in the hardware ID, so changing yours was not the reason activation was lost. It could have been that you had made other hardware changes, or maybe it could not connect to the activation servers. Putting a clone of 10 Pro in a PC that has a digital license for Home could have been another reason. It certainly wasn't down to changing the drive.

The Windows 10 Digital License is based on HWID 3. As long as the Windows edition, motherboard and CPU remain the same, once the computer has been activated, all future clean installs on that computer also will activate automatically. Note that all HWIDs exclude storage media entirely. Thus, on a PC with Windows 10 activated, you can replace its storage (HDD / SSD) devices with one or more new ones and clean install Windows 10 on a new disk. Even so, the PC will activate automatically based on that machine’s existing digital license.

Windows 10 Digital License explained – Win10.Guru

SierraPorter said:

Maybe it was that I added a "Manufacturer" and "Model" name to this pc recently since it had none, since i built it. Wonder if I should remove that first or if it is baked in now ?

No, that shouldn't have made any difference.

The 'manufacturer' being used in the hardware ID should be the one embedded in the bios firmware. Where exactly did you change yours?

Ten Forums member @Kari was the author of the article I linked to earlier and may be able to shed some light on this.

SierraPorter said:

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OEMInformation

That key is just used to display OEM details in Setting > System > About and doesn't play any part in the hardware ID. If did then there would have been a lot of complaints from those who followed this tutorial

Customize OEM Support Information in Windows 10

I did modify my motherboard bios but did not change any info like that. just added NVMe support

That is a little more likely to be a reason, but not very likely. Bios updates generally don't cause activation issues and what yuo did sounds like little more than a bios update.


On possibility comes to mind. Did you activate the Windows that you cloned with a retail key? Did you install the cloned drive in a different PC?

If so then on checking for activation Windows may have found you appeared to be trying to use the same key on more than one PC. If you change the installed key to the appropriate generic key for your Windows edition (Home or Pro) then it should activate from the digital license whatever machine you put the drive in, as long as that machine's own hardware ID has a digital license for that edition.

Windows 10 Pro: VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T
Windows 10 Home: YTMG3-N6DKC-DKB77-7M9GH-8HVX7

Generic Product Keys to Install Windows 10 Editions