Best way to reinstall Windows 10? Do I keep my activation key?

[Trollelicious]

Hi everyone!

In a day or two my new parts will arrive (i7-8700k + MB + RAM) and I thought I would take this as an opportunity to do a clean install of Windows and format my drives (1 SSD + 2 HDD).

So my questions are what is the best way to do a clean install of Windows 10 and will I keep my current Windows 10 Pro product key?

My guess for the first question is make a bootable USB and boot from it and choose to format the drives before I install Windows? The second question I googled a bit but didn't really find a good answer. So I decided to ask here to get some advice

 

Thanks!

[TVwazhere]

3 minutes ago, Trollelicious said:

Hi everyone!

In a day or two my new parts will arrive (i7-8700k + MB + RAM) and I thought I would take this as an opportunity to do a clean install of Windows and format my drives (1 SSD + 2 HDD).

So my questions are what is the best way to do a clean install of Windows 10 and will I keep my current Windows 10 Pro product key?

My guess for the first question is make a bootable USB and boot from it and choose to format the drives before I install Windows? The second question I googled a bit but didn't really find a good answer. So I decided to ask here to get some advice

 

Thanks!

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

 

Basically one of the easiest way to do it is create a microsoft account and link your code to the account. Then, when you swap out hardware, you can just reactivate it when you get the new PC up and running.

[NoRomanBatmansAllowed]

3 minutes ago, Trollelicious said:

y guess for the first question is make a bootable USB and boot from it and choose to format the drives before I install Windows?

Yep, absolutely correct.

 

3 minutes ago, Trollelicious said:

I keep my current Windows 10 Pro product key?

Sign in with an MS account. You get 3 "activations"/account with a key.

 

Alternatively you could run the following VBS script to get your key. IDK what it does, but MS support put it onto my computer when they were troubleshooting.

Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
MsgBox ConvertToKey(WshShell.RegRead("HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\DigitalProductId"))

Function ConvertToKey(Key)
Const KeyOffset = 52
i = 28
Chars = "BCDFGHJKMPQRTVWXY2346789"
Do
Cur = 0
x = 14
Do
Cur = Cur * 256
Cur = Key(x + KeyOffset) + Cur
Key(x + KeyOffset) = (Cur \ 24) And 255
Cur = Cur Mod 24
x = x -1
Loop While x >= 0
i = i -1
KeyOutput = Mid(Chars, Cur + 1, 1) & KeyOutput
If (((29 - i) Mod 6) = 0) And (i <> -1) Then
i = i -1
KeyOutput = "-" & KeyOutput
End If
Loop While i >= 0
ConvertToKey = KeyOutput
End Function

 

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

3 minutes ago, Trollelicious said:

Hi everyone!

In a day or two my new parts will arrive (i7-8700k + MB + RAM) and I thought I would take this as an opportunity to do a clean install of Windows and format my drives (1 SSD + 2 HDD).

So my questions are what is the best way to do a clean install of Windows 10 and will I keep my current Windows 10 Pro product key?

My guess for the first question is make a bootable USB and boot from it and choose to format the drives before I install Windows? The second question I googled a bit but didn't really find a good answer. So I decided to ask here to get some advice

 

Thanks!

You can reuse your product key for your new system if the product key in question is not a OEM license (i.e. it's a retail license). In terms of installing Windows, you're bang on. Just unplug your HDDs so Windows doesn't get confused as to where you want your Windows files (I'm assuming your using the SSD as boot). 

[TVwazhere]

5 minutes ago, Trollelicious said:

what is the best way to do a clean install of Windows 10 and will I keep my current Windows 10 Pro product key?

Yknow, it helps if I fully read the question 

 

If you do a "factory reset" on your SSD, it will remember your activation key but wipe everything else from your drive, including reverting to default settings, drivers and the like

[Jade]

You'll use a bootable USB or DVD to get into the Windows installer. When it asks for a product key you'll have to supply one -- the keys are only saved to the motherboard and since you're changing that, you'll need to put in the key you used again. You can pull your key from your current install using a variety of tools; Recover Keys, ProduKey, Magical Jelly Bean Key Finder, etc.

 

I find ProduKey to be the easiest, but Recover Keys is my favorite.

 

 

You could reset it like the guys above me are mentioning, but I prefer a full & clean wipe+reinstall instead.

[GoodBytes]

50 minutes ago, Jade said:

You'll use a bootable USB or DVD to get into the Windows installer. When it asks for a product key you'll have to supply one -- the keys are only saved to the

No! You don't have to. You have the option "I don't have one", which make Windows 10 auto detect your UEFI chip for the product key if it didn't do it already, or wait for you to connect online, add your MS linked account, and the key will be sync to the system and activate.

[Jade]

3 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

No! You don't have to. You have the option "I don't have one", which make Windows 10 auto detect your UEFI chip for the product key if it didn't do it already, or wait for you to connect online, add your MS linked account, and the key will be sync to the system and activate.

Personally, I'm not too keen on logging into a Microsoft account as my Windows user. Don't really ever think about that as an option -- but you are correct. But the way I described is the way to go about it, given they're replacing the motherboard, if they're like me.

[GoodBytes]

As mentioned by others:

 - If you have an OEM license of Windows, it is tied to the motherboard. You cann't change the motherboard. You can update/replace the rest just fine, but if you change the motherboard, you'll need a new license key, as per the EULA you agreed to, when you first installed or run Windows.

 

 - If you have a OEM System Builder license of Windows (that is the OEM license you can purchase at some computer retail stores online, like Newegg), the license is also tied to the motherboard it is first installed. Microsoft MAY be nice with you, if you do a phone activation, and give you an override code to transfer the license to a new motherboard, if the old one was broken and you could not find the exact same one.

 

 - If you have a retail licensed of Windows, than you can transfer it no problem. As long as it runs on 1 system at a time, you are good.

[Trollelicious]

1 hour ago, Jade said:

You'll use a bootable USB or DVD to get into the Windows installer. When it asks for a product key you'll have to supply one -- the keys are only saved to the motherboard and since you're changing that, you'll need to put in the key you used again. You can pull your key from your current install using a variety of tools; Recover Keys, ProduKey, Magical Jelly Bean Key Finder, etc.

 

I find ProduKey to be the easiest, but Recover Keys is my favorite.

 

 

You could reset it like the guys above me are mentioning, but I prefer a full & clean wipe+reinstall instead.

I did this to get the key just to be extra sure but I do have a MS account connected like GoodBytes explained below:

 

21 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

No! You don't have to. You have the option "I don't have one", which make Windows 10 auto detect your UEFI chip for the product key if it didn't do it already, or wait for you to connect online, add your MS linked account, and the key will be sync to the system and activate.

I do believe my Windows copy was originally bought in a 3 pack as Windows 7 but I'm not 100% sure.

[GoodBytes]

11 minutes ago, Trollelicious said:

I do believe my Windows copy was originally bought in a 3 pack as Windows 7 but I'm not 100% sure.

If that is the case, you bought Windows 7 Home Premium Family Pack, which was 3 license of Windows 10 Home Premium. I think it was 150$ (so 50$ each, which was a sweet deal), That license is Retail! So you can transfer it to another PC no problem. A phone activation might be in order, or use the troubleshooting tool, if you upgraded to Windows 10 during the free upgrade offer (or at least had the Get Windows 10 App where it reserved your copy for you) but it should work.

[Trollelicious]

5 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

If that is the case, you bought Windows 7 Home Premium Family Pack, which was 3 license of Windows 10 Home Premium. I think it was 150$ (so 50$ each, which was a sweet deal), That license is Retail! So you can transfer it to another PC no problem. A phone activation might be in order, or use the troubleshooting tool, if you upgraded to Windows 10 during the free upgrade offer (or at least had the Get Windows 10 App where it reserved your copy for you) but it should work.

That sounds about right! And yeah I got Windows 10 as soon as I could when it was for free.