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OEM windows license transferred itself after boot drive upgrade on my prebuilt

cleric_warlock
By cleric_warlock
in Operating Systems
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I recently finished upgrading my Corsair One i160's boot SSD and because I couldn't get drive cloning to work I assumed I'd have to pay for a new windows license, but that ended up not being the case. My machine originally came with windows 10 which I had to install first in order to be able to install the version of Solidworks that I'm licensed for before I could upgrade to windows 11. At some point in this process, it seems that my PC's OEM license automatically migrated itself onto my new windows install on the new boot drive when I installed windows 10. I'm definitely not complaining about the results since I no longer need to pay for a license, but what exactly happened here and is it normal? 

Current PC:

  • CPU
    Intel i9-12900KS
  • Motherboard
    Asus Rog Maximus Z690 Hero
  • RAM
    Corsair Vengeance DDR5-6600 MT/s, 2 x 16GB, (CL32-39-39-76, 1.40V), CMK32GX5M2X6600C32 for gaming or
    G.Skill Ripjaws DDR5-6000 MT/s, 2 x 32GB, (CL30-40-40-96, 1.40V), F5-6000J3040G32GX2-RS5K for heavy multitasking
  • GPU
    Aorus Xtreme Waterforce RTX 3090 TI
  • Case
    Corsair 7000D Airflow
  • Storage
    2 x 2TB WD Black sn850 SSDs
  • PSU
    EVGA Supernova 1600W P2, Fully Modular
  • Display(s)
    34" 1900R Alienware AW3418DW Black, 32" Samsung Odyssey G7 240Hz
  • Cooling
    Arctic Liquid Freezer ii 420, Built in 360mm gpu rad, 7 x 140mm Noctua NF-A14's (4 used as full case fan set, 3 used to upgrade CPU rad fans), 4 x 120mm Noctua NF-F12's (3 used to upgrade GPU rad stock fans, 1 used to fill last remaining case fan slot)
  • Keyboard
    Fidio Mechanical Gaming Keyboard
  • Mouse
    Asus Rog Spatha X
  • Sound
    SteelSeries Arctis Pro + Game DAC Wired Headset
  • Operating System
    Windows 11 Pro
  • PCPartPicker URL

 

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Yes, prebuilts/laptops have the license stored digitally in the BIOS. You can wipe everything and as you install Windows will see it and use it automagically. When that happens it's pretty obvious because during install you don't get the choice of edition to install as it selects the one the BIOS license is for on its own. 

F@H
Desktop: i9-13900K, ASUS Z790-E, 64GB DDR5-6000 CL36, RTX3080, 2TB MP600 Pro XT, 2TB SX8200Pro, 2x16TB Ironwolf RAID0, Corsair HX1200, Antec Vortex 360 AIO, Thermaltake Versa H25 TG, Samsung 4K curved 49" TV, 23" secondary, Mountain Everest Max

Mobile SFF rig: i9-9900K, Noctua NH-L9i, Asrock Z390 Phantom ITX-AC, 32GB, GTX1070, 2x1TB SX8200Pro RAID0, 2x5TB 2.5" HDD RAID0, Athena 500W Flex (Noctua fan), Custom 4.7l 3D printed case

 

Asus Zenbook UM325UA, Ryzen 7 5700u, 16GB, 1TB, OLED

 

GPD Win 2

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Yep.

 

I'm assuming this is a Dell or HP, etc. Those onboard licenses are handy. 

 

Just be sure to check Windows has activated. 

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