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Author Topic: windows 10 licence activated with digital licence linked to microsoft account  (Read 4000 times)

chenks

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so i have an Intel NUC that i'm selling.
it currently has Windows 10 Home 64bit installed, which was installed via the free upgrade from Windows 8.1 (for which i had a licence key for) - the NUC did not ship with any OS.

the windows 10 licence is "activated with a digital licence linked to your microsoft account"

i'd like to keep the licence to use on another system, and sell the NUC with no OS.

is this possible?
if the new owner of the NUC installs windows 10, will it try to activate using the licence it already had?

note that i have no physical key for windows 10, the only physical key i had was for windows 8.1 (and god knows where that is now).
it was much easier when everything was a physical key!
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Ronski

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As far as I'm aware the licence is tied to the hardware, not to your account. The only Windows licence you could move between hardware was a full retail version (no idea about enterprise  versions), I'm not sure if that carried over to Windows 10 when updated from an earlier version of Windows.

You can still use valid Windows 7, 8 & 8.1 licences's to activate Windows 10, at least you could last year.
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chenks

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so even though the hardware originally used a windows 8.1 install with a physical key, once that was updated to windows 10 i lose that ability to keep the licence and it becomes locked to the hardware?

this wasn't an oem windows 8.1 licence.

what if the hardware failed and i replaced it? would i then lose that windows 10 licence forever?
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broadstairs

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Certainly from what I've read elsewhere the digital license is tied to the motherboard and therefore you will need a new license for a new PC. Apparently there is an exception if the m/b fails and you can then use phone activation which should be allowed.

However having said all that I am not an expert so dont take it as gospel, but it certainly does look that way. No problem if you have a full retail license I gather.

Stuart
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j0hn

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As above, the Windows 10 license is tied to hardware.
The Windows 8.1 licence you had is still yours and you can use that.

I'm not 100% on the workings of it, but there's definitely no licence key you can swap to another machine.
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broadstairs

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Slightly off topic but this is one of the things which annoys the hell out of me about Microsoft. Why should anyone have to buy a PC or laptop with any software pre-installed. In the past I have tried to buy new a laptop with no software but it is rarer than rocking horse droppings to find anywhere you can easily do this. I dont run Microsoft s/w on any of my laptops so why do I have to have the stuff pre-loaded - I just never use it. If I purchase a PC I expect to be able to use that software on another PC if the first one dies without issue, after all I purchased it as part of the deal. It means I have 3 windows licenses I never use although they are not much use as its windows 7 or 8 only.

Stuart
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chenks

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As above, the Windows 10 license is tied to hardware.
The Windows 8.1 licence you had is still yours and you can use that.

I'm not 100% on the workings of it, but there's definitely no licence key you can swap to another machine.

there will be a mechanism to move the licence to another unit though, otherwise if a system board fails you'd need to buy windows again!

further to that though, if i did sell the unit with windows still on it, how would that licence then be transferred out of my microsoft account? as when i log in to my account i can see that licenced unit attached to my account.

if the new owner doesn't log into windows using a microsoft account the licence would never transfer out of my own microsoft account?

definitely much easier when you have a physical key on a sticker !
the windows 8.1 licence is virtually useless, no-one in their right mind would want to use windows 8.1 now and the licence has already had it's free upgrade to 10.
« Last Edit: February 19, 2018, 04:24:21 PM by chenks »
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parkdale

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I've moved my Windows 10 license to new hardware! because it was a retail MS one when they were doing low cost Windows 8.0 pro upgrades.
I had it converted to a digital license then changed my M/B, rang up MS and had my new setup licensed.
The old hardware still has a Win 7 home on it which also qualifies for Win 10 upgrade. ;D
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