New motherboard & Processor

On the setup screen where you log in with your Microsoft Account, down in the lower left corner is an "offline account" option. Click that and you can setup with a local account. I use it when installing the Education edition. It won't accept a Microsoft Account, it rejects it. It wants an Office 365 account or Azure login. It defaults to "setup for an organization". 10 Home, for me, defaults to "setup for personal use". I still have the offline account option though. 10 Pro shows me the "setup for an organization" or "setup for personal use" screen. What follows depends on which option I select.

NavyLCDR said:

@alphanumeric, the strange thing is that the new motherboard replaced the old computer on my Microsoft Account. But, as someone pointed out, it's possible that happened because it was the SSD with the same Windows 10 and not a clean install on the new motherboard.

Activation is, IMHO so messed up. PC's that IMHO, should never get a DL, Enterprise for example, do. Then randomly they seem to block PC's that already have a valid DL? The activation servers seem to tilt every now and then? It would seem that the push is on to migrate every Windows PC to Windows 10. It's never been easier to do the free upgrade and or move an install to new hardware. I bet you your old hardware will also activate just fine if you put a new hard drive in it and clean install Windows 10. It shouldn't, but I bet it does.

NavyLCDR said:

@alphanumeric, the strange thing is that the new motherboard replaced the old computer on my Microsoft Account. But, as someone pointed out, it's possible that happened because it was the SSD with the same Windows 10 and not a clean install on the new motherboard.

The, not being a clean install, I would think is a big part of what went down. Why things went the way they did. I've swapped very similar hardware in the past, running Windows 7, and activation was un effected. ASUS M2N68 to M4N68 motherboard. New CPU and RAM at the same time. No reinstall, OEM system builders install. Usually, a motherboard swap triggers an activation fail.

Well it seems activation transfer has been automated based on the MSA. Thus, if an activation request is done via a registered MSA, and the HWID cannot be verified, it will seek an existing DL for that edition and update the HWID of that accordingly as a new DL (for the edition). The old DL (on the previous MB) will now be defunct.

This is a good thing, as it will auto-update the DL even should a chipset driver update change the HWID significantly.

Superfly said:

Well it seems activation transfer has been automated based on the MSA. Thus, if an activation request is done via a registered MSA, and the HWID cannot be verified, it will seek an existing DL for that edition and update the HWID of that accordingly as a new DL (for the edition). The old DL (on the previous MB) will now be defunct.

This is a good thing, as it will auto-update the DL even should a chipset driver update change the HWID significantly.

How does it know which device is the old motherboard? Refresh my memory, what does MSA mean? Just want to make sure I'm on the same page. I think I get, that in this instance, this all happened because the hard drive was moved form one device to another? NavyLCDR's situation. And it was linked to his Microsoft account. Somewhere on that drive was the ID for the old device, the one that now doesn't have a DL? As it transferred to the new hardware. I think I need another cup of coffee, lol.

alphanumeric said:

How does it know which device is the old motherboard? Refresh my memory, what does MSA mean? Just want to make sure I'm on the same page. I think I get, that in this instance, this all happened because the hard drive was moved form one device to another? NavyLCDR's situation. And it was linked to his Microsoft account. Somewhere on that drive was the ID for the old device, the one that now doesn't have a DL? As it transferred to the new hardware. I think I need another cup of coffee, lol.

LOL.. MSA = Microsoft Account - stores the DL's there (that's where it seeks DL for each device linked)


Before:
PC.old = HWID1 = DL1 = OK

PC.new = HWID2 = no DL

Checks MSA and finds DL1 - asssigns HWID2 to DL1

After:
PC.new = HWID2 = DL1 = OK

PC.old = HWID1 = ?DL

I don't the SSD transfer has anything to do with it.... just the same edition that had already acquired a DL (and linked to the MSA) being used to sign in to PC.new.

Ok, that's what I thought it meant, just having one of those days I guess. You can activate without using a Microsoft Account though? I have no problem activating (with a DL) when setting up with a local account. Plus, several of my Pc's have multiple DL's for different Editions, Home ,Pro etc. Which one is linked? The one for the currently installed Edition? Or the one for the last Edition installed on that device? Or all of them? And when does that happen? Not really looking for answers to all those questions, just pointing out that there are all kinds of variables at play.
Ok, my real question is, as I have several PC's with multiple DL's for different editions. If I install 10 Pro on a new PC, do a skip key, and log in with my Microsoft ID. Following your logic, it's going to take a DL from one of my other PC's and move it to the new device? Not what I would want. Unless I'm misunderstanding what you said, highly likely by the way. I still think the SSD transfer had something to do with it. The PC's device name etc is all on it.

NavyLCDR said:

Agree 100%. I don't think the DL was moved just by the single action of logging in with a MSA because I have a bunch of devices on my MSA and my new "device" replaced the correct old "device" and I would hope that wasn't just a coincidence. I think it came from the already existing information on the SSD that was moved over.

Now, what would really have been interesting, but it's too late to try now, would be to remove the MSA login from the old computer first, leaving only a local account on it. Then move the SSD to the new motherboard and see what happened with just a local account. My prediction is that there would have been exactly the same results - because Windows does not activate from a Microsoft Account - it activates from Microsoft Activation Servers - which does not require a MSA. The digital licenses shown on the devices page of the MSA are only links to the real digital license info stored on Microsoft Activation Servers.

Yeah, the "linked to your Microsoft account" was added to make using the activation troubleshooter easier, but not a requirement for activation with a DL.

I think your new device replaced the old device because the Device Name (computer name) went along for the ride with the SSD. On a clean install you get a auto generated Device Name and I haven't found any way to overriding that during setup. Not with just the stock install, no answers file etc. I always end up going in after and changing it to what I want. Sometimes I see both names in my "My Devices" list. The old auto generated name and the one I set. I end up deleting the leftover. Microsoft seem to have cleaned that up as it hasn't happened in a while now. There also used to be a long delay, days sometimes, before the Device Name would catch up with what I changed it too. Anyway, interesting times.