OS Changing ?

[SladeDJWilson]

I'm going to replace my old Mobo,CPU,ram basically the important components of a computer except by HDD. Currently my system is having a retail 1903 build of win 10. So should I reinstall windows when everything is replaced ?

[BaconLord222]

You shouldn't need to reinstall Windows, however your windows product key will most likely become deactivated due to the large hardware change. You may have to look into buying another product key, or speaking to Microsoft support about reactivating the product key on the new hardware.

[Flying Sausages]

Is it the OEM Windows version? If it is than you have to buy a new OS for a new mobo

 

If it is not the OEM Windows version then you will have to call Microsoft and tell them to deactivate the license on your old mobo.

 

[TheGreatSora]

you dont neceserally have to but it is recommended that you do

[Bazrat]

I've got an OEM Version of Windows 10 that has gone through 3 hardware changes, and haven't had to reinstall, went from a laptop with i7 6500u, to desktop with i5 7500, to another desktop with Ryzen 7. Haven't had any problems with it at all.

[phoenixflower]

3 hours ago, SladeDJWilson said:

I'm going to replace my old Mobo,CPU,ram basically the important components of a computer except by HDD. Currently my system is having a retail 1903 build of win 10. So should I reinstall windows when everything is replaced ?

When changing your hardware other than non-essential devices such as your PCI-E NICs, SATA drives, PCI-E NVME drives or other PCI-E peripherals.  It is advisable to create a backup of your essential data and re-install the Operating System.  Under some not well understood circumstances you can change hardware without a problem; however, Microsoft has never commented on this and probably never will.  It's a very misunderstood workload of some of the more nitty gritty software used to boot the operating system.

 

In the best case you may boot properly and experience degraded performance without knowledge of it, you may have to re-install drivers in the second best case (it boots in the OS but something doesn't work), or your system will POST but will not boot into the operating system (this is the worst case).

[Enderman]

You should definitely do a clean install when changing motherboards.

Avoids a bunch of issues.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-ca/help/20530/windows-10-reactivating-after-hardware-change

https://www.howtogeek.com/224342/how-to-clean-install-windows-10/

[SladeDJWilson]

17 minutes ago, Enderman said:

You should definitely do a clean install when changing motherboards.

Avoids a bunch of issues.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-ca/help/20530/windows-10-reactivating-after-hardware-change

https://www.howtogeek.com/224342/how-to-clean-install-windows-10/

Thanks 

[SladeDJWilson]

42 minutes ago, BaconLord222 said:

You shouldn't need to reinstall Windows, however your windows product key will most likely become deactivated due to the large hardware change. You may have to look into buying another product key, or speaking to Microsoft support about reactivating the product key on the new hardware.

Alright thanks

[SladeDJWilson]

30 minutes ago, Bazrat said:

I've got an OEM Version of Windows 10 that has gone through 3 hardware changes, and haven't had to reinstall, went from a laptop with i7 6500u, to desktop with i5 7500, to another desktop with Ryzen 7. Haven't had any problems with it at all.

Noted

20 minutes ago, phoenixflower said:

When changing your hardware other than non-essential devices such as your PCI-E NICs, SATA drives, PCI-E NVME drives or other PCI-E peripherals.  It is advisable to create a backup of your essential data and re-install the Operating System.  Under some not well understood circumstances you can change hardware without a problem; however, Microsoft has never commented on this and probably never will.  It's a very misunderstood workload of some of the more nitty gritty software used to boot the operating system.

 

In the best case you may boot properly and experience degraded performance without knowledge of it, you may have to re-install drivers in the second best case (it boots in the OS but something doesn't work), or your system will POST but will not boot into the operating system (this is the worst case).

Ok

[SladeDJWilson]

42 minutes ago, Genwyn said:

It would be easiest to reinstall, if youre getting an SSD it would be optimal to reinstall windows onto the SSD.

Otherwise you can leave it on if you have the bootable media for windows 10, to use the stock drivers compatible with the new hardware, then you can go through the microsoft reactivation process to get windows activated again without a full reinstall.

Not having a SSD

[Arika]

if you dont "want" to reinstall, you can do a sysprep to get the OS ready for the new hardware. Make sure you do this JUST BEFORE you replace the hardware, it essentially locks down the drivers and allows windows to download/activate the correct ones for the new MB

 

MAKE SURE YOU BACK UP EVERYTHING YOU WANT TO KEEP JUST IN CASE

 

Fair warning: 

• All system restore points are deleted.
• All event logs and personalizations are removed.

Using an administrative (elevated) command prompt . . . 
Use this command:
%windir%\System32\Sysprep\sysprep.exe
  

Choose "Enter System Out-of-Box Experience (OOBE)".

Check the "Generalize" box.

Choose "Shutdown".

 

change hardware and turn it back on. it will run through a brief start up process but provided everything goes well, all your stuff will still be there and installed

  

[Enderman]

46 minutes ago, BaconLord222 said:

You shouldn't need to reinstall Windows, however your windows product key will most likely become deactivated due to the large hardware change. You may have to look into buying another product key, or speaking to Microsoft support about reactivating the product key on the new hardware.

What are you talking about?

All you need to do is link it to a microsoft account and log in with that account on the new install, it will activate automatically.

 

Or if you still have the key you can just enter it manually again.

 

You never need to buy a new key.

[phoenixflower]

3 hours ago, Arika S said:

if you dont "want" to reinstall, you can do a sysprep to get the OS ready for the new hardware. Make sure you do this JUST BEFORE you replace the hardware, it essentially locks down the drivers and allows windows to download/activate the correct ones for the new MB

 

3 hours ago, SladeDJWilson said:

I'm going to replace my old Mobo,CPU,ram basically the important components of a computer except by HDD. Currently my system is having a retail 1903 build of win 10. So should I reinstall windows when everything is replaced ?

The above recommendation is a reasonable recommendation if you can deal with the possible technical debt associated with it.  Arika's basically recommending safe mode for Windows 10.  In this case it's safe mode + automatically informing Windows 10 to get new drivers.  Always remember to backup important data