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Activating Windows 10 After Replacing Hardware
Hello everyone! I have a question and I apologize if this has been discussed earlier. I am really confused about how activation now works with Windows 10. I hope someone can help me understand. Say I have a PC that had Window 7 with an OEM license installed, and then it was upgraded to Windows 10. I understand that the license is suppose to still be OEM which is fine. How does activation work if the hardware was changed due to a major upgrade eg. motherboard, HDD, graphics card etc? My understanding is that there is no key and that the license is linked to a Microsoft account and current hardware setup. I know in previous versions of Windows you would just go through a phone activation process to reactivate a new installation for the OEM license, but I am pretty sure it still used a product key to do that. It would ask how many other devices are using this product key and you would say zero and all was good. Can someone please shed some light on this issue for me? I would like to upgrade one our computers, but I am afraid to because I don't know how the activation works. I rather not have to purchase a new license if not needed. Thank you in advance for any assistance provided.