Have to rebuy Win10 after restoration?

[Filiboii]

So I was planning to restore my pc,

 and I was wondering if I would have to rebuy a windows license?

[iRileyx]

In most cases you can just swap the product key over.

[Blebekblebek]

1 minute ago, RKRiley said:

In most cases you can just swap the product key over.

Who told you this?

Swap to whom?

[iRileyx]

Just now, Blebekblebek said:

Who told you this?

Swap to whom?

No one told me, i did it myself.

 

Swapped out my CPU + motherboard, and did a completely fresh windows 10 install at the same time, used the same product key that was on the old hardware, and it activated and works fine.

[Blebekblebek]

Just now, RKRiley said:

No one told me, i did it myself.

 

Swapped out my CPU + motherboard, and did a completely fresh windows 10 install at the same time, used the same product key that was on the old hardware, and it activated and works fine.

So which part of swapping key from that process?

[iRileyx]

3 minutes ago, Blebekblebek said:

So which part of swapping key from that process?

To be clear i don't mean swapping to a different key, i meant swapping the current key to the new hardware.

 

You have to de-activate it on the old, or in this case current hardware before installing the new hardware, then just re-enter it once the new hardware is in and the optional fresh install is done.

[Blebekblebek]

that's what you said, that's why I'm asking.

"In most cases you can just swap the product key over."

 

So the answer is No need to rebuy.

[Undergrid]

9 minutes ago, Filiboii said:

So I was planning to restore my pc,

 and I was wondering if I would have to rebuy a windows license?

If you've logged in to your PC with a microsoft account, the key for the system will be associated with that account.  Just log in again on the restored version and it should be fine.  If you change hardware though, you might have to migrate the key to the new hardware (there's a wizard that will take you through that).

[iRileyx]

1 minute ago, Blebekblebek said:

that's what you said, that's why I'm asking.

"In most cases you can just swap the product key over."

 

So the answer is No need to rebuy.

Granted it wasn't the most in depth answer, but it can be read in two ways, the way i intended being that you can swap it over to the new hardware.

[GoodBytes]

11 minutes ago, Filiboii said:

So I was planning to restore my pc,

 and I was wondering if I would have to rebuy a windows license?

You do not need to rebuy Windows. You can re-install Windows as much as you want.

• The Windows product key is stored in the UEFI if you have a pre-build computer from a large manufacture (Dell, HP, etc.)
• If you have a custom computer or one that had a previous version of Windows and you switch to Windows 10:
  • If you have a Microsoft linked account, then the product key is stored with the account. So in Windows 10 setup, click on "I don't have a product key" (or something like this), once installed, and in Windows 10, Check for updates, and by the time Updates are installed and your restarted your system, Windows 10 will be activated.
     
  • If you only have a local account, a unique key is generated from your hardware specs, and stored in Microsoft servers. As long as your hardware doesn't change too much between a clean install, you should be fine, where like the point above, you click on the "I don't have one" on the product key in the Windows 10 installation, once in Windows 10 and finish checking for updates and restart after the updates are installed, your Windows should be activated.

[Tiwaz]

19 minutes ago, RKRiley said:

To be clear i don't mean swapping to a different key, i meant swapping the current key to the new hardware.

 

You have to de-activate it on the old, or in this case current hardware before installing the new hardware, then just re-enter it once the new hardware is in and the optional fresh install is done.

how to de-activate the current key?

[afyeung]

10 minutes ago, Tiwaz said:

how to de-activate the current key?

run an administrative command prompt (cmd) and type in      slmgr /upk      (This uninstalls the key)

[GoodBytes]

37 minutes ago, Tiwaz said:

how to de-activate the current key?

No need to. Windows servers will take care of all this.

Unless you plan to switch the license to another computer (Please note that this applies only to RETAIL version of Windows. OEM and System Builder OEMs are locked to the motherboard it is first installed on)