How does windows digital licence work???

[speex2020]

I am currently getting everything for a new pc and I am wonding something about windows digital licence.

 

I am going to give my current pc away and I have a microsoft account on it with a digital licence key, will this key get removed from my current pc when doing a fresh install and a different MSA linked to the pc? 

If so how can I change it so that the licence goes with this current pc, I don't want this key on the new pc (have a different one for the new one already on it's way) 

 

[Agall]

8 minutes ago, speex2020 said:

I am currently getting everything for a new pc and I am wonding something about windows digital licence.

 

I am going to give my current pc away and I have a microsoft account on it with a digital licence key, will this key get removed from my current pc when doing a fresh install and a different MSA linked to the pc? 

If so how can I change it so that the licence goes with this current pc, I don't want this key on the new pc (have a different one for the new one already on it's way) 

 

In my experience with consumer Windows licenses, you get 1-2 'free' reactivations per license, which I believe varies between Home and Pro versions.

 

Once you log into your Microsoft Account, go to the Activate section, simply select "I recently changed my hardware" and select which machine's license you wish to reactivate with. I haven't seen it cause a problem with the machine already using that license, but it does limit you to doing it only once or twice per.

 

Regarding a 'new' key from the other machine, the only option I know of is to buy another. I would recommend just doing the above steps to just 'reuse' that key.

 

Reactivating Windows after a hardware change - Microsoft Support

[speex2020]

Just now, Agall said:

In my experience with consumer Windows licenses, you get 1-2 'free' reactivations per license, which I believe varies between Home and Pro versions.

 

Once you log into your Microsoft Account, go to the Activate section, simply select "I recently changed my hardware" and select which machine's license you wish to reactivate with. I haven't seen it cause a problem with the machine already using that license, but it does limit you to doing it only once or twice per.

 

Regarding a 'new' key from the other machine, the only option I know of is to buy another. I would recommend just doing the above steps to just 'reuse' that key.

To  clearify, This pc has a digital license on it wich it says is linked to this MSA, I want this license to stay on this pc and not when I move to the new PC with the same MSA, is that possible or is it not? 

[speex2020]

14 minutes ago, Agall said:

In my experience with consumer Windows licenses, you get 1-2 'free' reactivations per license, which I believe varies between Home and Pro versions.

 

Once you log into your Microsoft Account, go to the Activate section, simply select "I recently changed my hardware" and select which machine's license you wish to reactivate with. I haven't seen it cause a problem with the machine already using that license, but it does limit you to doing it only once or twice per.

 

Regarding a 'new' key from the other machine, the only option I know of is to buy another. I would recommend just doing the above steps to just 'reuse' that key.

 

Reactivating Windows after a hardware change - Microsoft Support

 

12 minutes ago, speex2020 said:

To  clearify, This pc has a digital license on it wich it says is linked to this MSA, I want this license to stay on this pc and not when I move to the new PC with the same MSA, is that possible or is it not? 

 

So to simply it as well,

 

I want this pc to use the same license (Giving this pc away) - Says it is linked to my MSA

I want new pc to have new license - New pc comming in soon

 

Is it possible to use the old pc with a different MSA with the same digital license even tho it says it is linked to my MSA

 

[Agall]

16 minutes ago, speex2020 said:

 

 

So to simply it as well,

 

I want this pc to use the same license (Giving this pc away) - Says it is linked to my MSA

I want new pc to have new license - New pc comming in soon

 

Is it possible to use the old pc with a different MSA with the same digital license even tho it says it is linked to my MSA

 

I would recommend removing it from your MS account after you've reactivated with the key too, because otherwise it'll still show up there as a device. The digital Windows license should be bound to your MS account either way, especially if you purchased it through the MS Store.

 

I would build the system, activate using the "I changed hardware" then remove the sold device from the account. That should be the best solution given the circumstances. It shouldn't mess with the machine you sold if it lets you do it.

 

Anytime you login to a MS account into Windows, it'll cache that in Windows, but also HWinfo. Example being let's say you had an X570s motherboard and upgraded to an X670e platform, and selected "changed my hardware" for the Windows license, it'll continue to show that machine as "X570s" whenever you go to grab the bitlocker key (changing PCIe devices like GPUs will trigger that every time...). All theoretically speaking, of course.

 

Whether or not that's within the TOS/UELA for Windows depends on your interpretation of it. Microsoft is unlikely to 'audit' a consumer with a couple of machines on their Microsoft account compared to a business customer MPSA/Volume License customer with hundreds of licenses. Especially if said business customer ends up with dozens upon dozens of new Windows Server 2022 machines and they haven't seen more licenses purchased.

 

On the consumer side, I wouldn't worry about it. If it lets you do that, then just accept that you actually 'changed hardware'. If you've got a MPSA/VLSC agreement, then Microsoft will literally give you the rope to hang yourself with, then come asking for thousands of dollars when they happen to audit your organization and realize you've been overusing various Server/Pro Windows licenses.

[speex2020]

8 minutes ago, Agall said:

I would recommend removing it from your MS account after you've reactivated with the key too, because otherwise it'll still show up there as a device. The digital Windows license should be bound to your MS account either way, especially if you purchased it through the MS Store.

 

I would build the system, activate using the "I changed hardware" then remove the sold device from the account. That should be the best solution given the circumstances. It shouldn't mess with the machine you sold if it lets you do it.

 

Anytime you login to a MS account into Windows, it'll cache that in Windows, but also HWinfo. Example being let's say you had an X570s motherboard and upgraded to an X670e platform, and selected "changed my hardware" for the Windows license, it'll continue to show that machine as "X570s" whenever you go to grab the bitlocker key (changing PCIe devices like GPUs will trigger that every time...). All theoretically speaking, of course.

 

Whether or not that's within the TOS/UELA for Windows depends on your interpretation of it. Microsoft is unlikely to 'audit' a consumer with a couple of machines on their Microsoft account compared to a business customer MPSA/Volume License customer with hundreds of licenses. Especially if said business customer ends up with dozens upon dozens of new Windows Server 2022 machines and they haven't seen more licenses purchased.

 

On the consumer side, I wouldn't worry about it. If it lets you do that, then just accept that you actually 'changed hardware'. If you've got a MPSA/VLSC agreement, then Microsoft will literally give you the rope to hang yourself with, then come asking for thousands of dollars when they happen to audit your organization and realize you've been overusing various Server/Pro Windows licenses.

Then is it possible to remove the key from the MSA now, since I am upgrading from a B360 to a Z790 

[Agall]

10 minutes ago, speex2020 said:

Then is it possible to remove the key from the MSA now, since I am upgrading from a B360 to a Z790 

I can't confirm past what I've already explained as a path forward because I've done that process multiple times.

 

19 minutes ago, Agall said:

I would build the system, activate using the "I changed hardware" then remove the sold device from the account. That should be the best solution given the circumstances. It shouldn't mess with the machine you sold if it lets you do it.

If that doesn't work, then simply buy another license and remove the device from your account. Those digital licenses shouldn't give you an actual product key like physical copies that come with a USB installation media, but I can't verify that for a few more hours with my Windows 11 Pro license purchased through the MS store.

[speex2020]

31 minutes ago, Agall said:

If that doesn't work, then simply buy another license and remove the device from your account. Those digital licenses shouldn't give you an actual product key like physical copies that come with a USB installation media, but I can't verify that for a few more hours with my Windows 11 Pro license purchased through the MS store.

That is fine, thank you for the help atleast, let me know if you have some more information