Installing windows with same key

[lior1111]

Hi, my brother cane to me for help and im not sure how to help him as its a situatiom i never encountered. 

He has a work laptop that is very slow and so He bought an ssd. 

Thing is, the work laptop aleardy has a genuine windows installed and it would be better not to buy a new one if possible. Wanted to know how exactly do i transfer the windows from the currently installed hdd to the new ssd with the genuine key tied to that hdd. 

Thank you. 

[Enderman]

The key is tied to the motherboard not the drive.

Clean install on the SSD and it will activate automatically.

Assuming it's windows 10 of course.

[Stevers108]

5 minutes ago, lior1111 said:

Hi, my brother cane to me for help and im not sure how to help him as its a situatiom i never encountered. 

He has a work laptop that is very slow and so He bought an ssd. 

Thing is, the work laptop aleardy has a genuine windows installed and it would be better not to buy a new one if possible. Wanted to know how exactly do i transfer the windows from the currently installed hdd to the new ssd with the genuine key tied to that hdd. 

Thank you. 

I actually just researched this topic as a friend of mine is in the same situation (except that he is moving to a new motherboard). Here is what I found: https://www.windowscentral.com/how-transfer-windows-10-license-new-computer-or-hard-drive

 

You basically deactivate Windows on the old HDD and then reactivate it onto the new one. I don't know if this works as I haven't tried it yet.

[lior1111]

13 hours ago, Enderman said:

The key is tied to the motherboard not the drive.

Clean install on the SSD and it will activate automatically.

Assuming it's windows 10 of course.

I will try.. Sounds awesome if it works like that

13 hours ago, Stevers108 said:

I actually just researched this topic as a friend of mine is in the same situation (except that he is moving to a new motherboard). Here is what I found: https://www.windowscentral.com/how-transfer-windows-10-license-new-computer-or-hard-drive

 

You basically deactivate Windows on the old HDD and then reactivate it onto the new one. I don't know if this works as I haven't tried it yet.

Alright, i will try. How so i know the current activated key btw? Im pretty sure i already found it but it has so many zeros so i suspect alittle lol. 

[Stevers108]

3 hours ago, lior1111 said:

I will try.. Sounds awesome if it works like that

Alright, i will try. How so i know the current activated key btw? Im pretty sure i already found it but it has so many zeros so i suspect alittle lol. 

Here is an article directly from Microsoft as to how you can locate your key (depending on your particular situation).

[Stevers108]

3 hours ago, Stevers108 said:

Here is an article directly from Microsoft as to how you can locate your key (depending on your particular situation).

Sorry I forgot the link! https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/10749/windows-10-find-product-key

[Enderman]

22 hours ago, Stevers108 said:

I actually just researched this topic as a friend of mine is in the same situation (except that he is moving to a new motherboard). Here is what I found: https://www.windowscentral.com/how-transfer-windows-10-license-new-computer-or-hard-drive

 

You basically deactivate Windows on the old HDD and then reactivate it onto the new one. I don't know if this works as I haven't tried it yet.

When moving to a new computer the motherboard changes and that's why you need to do that.

If you're not changing computers or motherboards it stays activated.

 

And no, the best way is not to "deactivate on the old HDD" all you need to do is link it to a microsoft account, and when you log in with that account on the new computer it will activate.

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

[Enderman]

5 hours ago, Stevers108 said:

Here is an article directly from Microsoft as to how you can locate your key (depending on your particular situation).

There is no need to find the product key.

If the motherboard isn't changing then you literally don't need to do anything.

If the motherboard is changing then you just need to link a microsoft account and log in with it on the new computer, as shown in the microsoft support link above.