(Re)Activation after identical motherboard replacement

tns1 said:

I was getting ready to try swapping my old CPU into the replacement board in hopes it would re-activate, or even try the MS account trick to move another W10 license from an even older PC , but this was by far the best, simplest solution.

Actually the MS account link was setup to enable people to swap failed mobos in a like for like (or at least similar). It was never intended to allow users to move oem licences from one pc to another (i.e. effectively a "poor mans" retail licence).

People soon sussed out they could use the link to move licences between devices. The more savvy users here will know that move is a rather inaccurate term

tns1 said:

That site did the trick, thanks.... for $5 it was worth it. Time will tell if the key sticks.

It's always possible that one day MS may block that key from activation. That may cause problems if that key is the installed key in your Windows. You can see the last 5 character of your installed key by opening a command prompt and typing the command slmgr /dlv



You should see in Settings > Update & security > Activation that 'Windows is activated with a digital license....'. If so, then you can change the installed key to the generic key and Windows will remain activated from the digital license. Then the activation servers will have no way to see what key you had originally used to get activated.

The generic key for Pro is: VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T
Generic Product Keys to Install Windows 10 Editions

SIW2 said:

That is quite an assumption.

It's a reasonable assumption, admittedly only based on a sample of one.

I purchased a cheap key in 2018 to upgrade from 10 Home to 10 Pro. It did work to get the PC a digital licence for Pro, but I then reinstalled Windows so it now has the generic key. I know for a fact that the key I used is now blocked, but the PC remains activated from its generic key and the digital licence for Pro to this day.

SIW2 said:

Curious theory.

No it is not a theory - that is what happened at year 1 of W10.

People who upgraded from W7/8 to W10 were complaining their mobo had failed but they had lost their original installation keys.

So MS introduced the MS link to help these people but people soon discovered it enabled people to move their licence from one pc to another. This was never the original intent.

I remember it clearly as my mobo failed about 2 weeks after they announced the new link. There were even posts by MS forum staff that said it would not work for oem licences to transfer licences from one pc to another, but people proved them wrong.

In the end, MS did not really care as they were more concerned about keeping people in the Windows 10 ecosphere.

Bree said:

It's a reasonable assumption, admittedly only based on a sample of one.

I purchased a cheap key in 2018 to upgrade from 10 Home to 10 Pro. It did work to get the PC a digital licence for Pro, but I then reinstalled Windows so it now has the generic key. I know for a fact that the key I used is now blocked, but the PC remains activated from its generic key and the digital licence for Pro to this day.

More than a sample of 1.
@Superfly discovered that his showkeyplus could extract the original Windows 10 keys from the registry on pcs where it was not bios embedded.

However, we also discovered when you did an upgrade of the build, the key in the registry was replaced with the generic key, and the original key was lost. I cannot say if that has changed.

It seems the digital licence has no knowledge of the original key.

It is funny how many people still post stuff saying a cheap key could get blocked and you could become unactivated. The key might get blocked (as you found) but the digital licence remains in force until mobo fail. In other words a cheap key only has to work once.

Of course if key is blocked, you cannot use it on a different pc, but you can still "transfer" digital licence to a new device providing you use MS accounts.

I did a (repeatable) experiment and found a digital licence could only be transferred 3 times though, so it is not like using a full retail key that can be transferred an unlimited number of times. I have not re-tested this for years though, so I cannot say if things are still the same.