How do I transfer windows 10 after upgrading my pc

[MrCool127]

I’m fairly new to pc and I’m upgrading my pc in a few days and the parts I’m replacing are the mobo, ram, and cpu. My hard drive has windows 10 installed on so will it read it and start up or do I need to reinstall windows. Also with the updated bios for my mobo do I need to download It before on to a flash drive and install it in my bios.

[Canada EH]

if they are the same model then you can do it, mobo and cpu. If not then you need to buy a new o/s

 

[anoor9000]

Most of the time if the windows 10 key does not work when you replace the parts you can just activate the Windows key again by calling microsoft. Really simple and takes 5 minutes. 

 

If for some reason you cant, then you can buy a key off ebay for less than $5.

[JPStone]

Yes, Windows 10 licenses are now locked to your Motherboard. If you swaped out MoBo It shoud will boot but no probably will not be active anymore. You can still use windows for awhile unlicensed (after a few days a watermark asking you to activate windows appears on desktop). . There are ways to get your Product Key but believe me I have gone through it and it wont really help you anyway unless maybe its on a sticker from a manufacturer but if you home built then its a bit tougher. 

 

I recently had this problem and practically pulled my hair out and ended wasting $40 bucks on Kinguin for a bogus OEM Windows 10 Pro key that did't work. Don't buy any of those sketchy "OEM KEYs" from those third party sites like Kinguin. You can buy legit licenses for 60-80 dollars on Amazon. However if you had a licensed copy of Windows 10 on a previous device here is what worked for me to transfer license over to new or upgradedsystem

 

When you reinstall windows set it up initially as an offline account( for some reason when I tried to do it with an account that was online already this didn't work). And when I say offline you can still connect to the internet just don't sign into your Microsoft account during the initial setup, when prompted click on set up as offline account. Once you have it all loaded up and booting hit Windows Key+I then go to update and security/ activation. It will probably say something like this copy of windows is not active please enter key or buy a license. Hit where it says troubleshoot. When troubleshooting runs it will probably say it cant fix it but on the bottom it should have an option to say something like I recently made major hardware changes to my computer.  Hit that and then it will ask you if you have a Microsoft account linked to a copy of windows. Hopefully you did and can sign in. If so hit yes follow prompts to enter username and Password. It should then give you a list of licensed windows 10 system you have on your account. You can then select the system you are replacing or no longer using and Voila!! Windows will transfer that license over to your new system.

 

This seems to only work once though as I tried to do it a second time with same license after upgrading my MoBo a month after my new build and when I went through this process at the end it said cannot because this system was already used to update another PC or something to that effect.

 

All else fails you can try and contact MS directly but its mostly just automated systems that hang up on you. I get that Windows Piracy was rampant but when you pay $120 bucks for software you should be able to use it on any system you want for life without having to jump through a million hoops. I hope this helped and good luck 

[Streetguru]

38 minutes ago, MrCool127 said:

I’m fairly new to pc and I’m upgrading my pc in a few days and the parts I’m replacing are the mobo, ram, and cpu. My hard drive has windows 10 installed on so will it read it and start up or do I need to reinstall windows. Also with the updated bios for my mobo do I need to download It before on to a flash drive and install it in my bios.

You should just reinstall your OS

 

You might have the key linked to your microsoft account, otherwise just call to activate or something when you reuse the key.

[GoodBytes]

33 minutes ago, MrCool127 said:

I’m fairly new to pc and I’m upgrading my pc in a few days and the parts I’m replacing are the mobo, ram, and cpu. My hard drive has windows 10 installed on so will it read it and start up or do I need to reinstall windows. Also with the updated bios for my mobo do I need to download It before on to a flash drive and install it in my bios.

Assuming you are not changing your SSD/HDD, just plug it in, and you are read to go. Windows 10 will detect the new hardware as it loads (you'll notice a much slower startup time), install drivers, and adapt itself. Once done, do Windows Update to get the latest drivers, and anything missing, and you should be ready to go.

 

That said, Windows 10 will now be deactivated, because the motherboard was changed.

If you have a retail copy of Windows 10, you should be able to re-activate it once again by going to Start > Settings > Update & Security > Activation. Maybe a phone activation might be needed, but it will work.

 

If you have a OEM (Dell, HP, Acer, etc) or system builder OEM (the ones you can buy at computer stores, like Newegg) license then you cannot transfer them. It is part of the lower price. You'll need to purchase a new license of Windows, which you can enter its product key in Start > Settings > Update & Security > Activation, and you'll be up and running.

 

For best experience, and ensure the highest reliability, it is best to clean install Windows 10.

 

Note:

- If you pass from BIOS to UEFI, or your old system was installed on a UEFI based system but set to Legacy mode (emulates BIOS), then you won't be able to start Windows 10, You'll need to do a clean install. This is because BIOS only works with MBR partition layout, while UEFI only works with GPT which is the new stuff for drives.
 

- If you set your old BIOS or UEFI SATA controller to emulate IDE/Legacy (to emulate the old fat ribbon cable), and now you have it set to AHCI/Native mode, then Windows 10 will also not boot, as it was configure for these age old systems using IDE cable. A clean install install is required.

[MrCool127]

6 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

Assuming you are not changing your SSD/HDD, just plug it in, and you are read to go. Windows 10 will detect the new hardware as it loads (you'll notice a much slower startup time), install drivers, and adapt itself. Once done, do Windows Update to get the latest drivers, and anything missing, and you should be ready to go.

 

That said, Windows 10 will now be deactivated, because the motherboard was changed.

If you have a retail copy of Windows 10, you should be able to re-activate it once again by going to Start > Settings > Update & Security > Activation. Maybe a phone activation might be needed, but it will work.

 

If you have a OEM (Dell, HP, Acer, etc) or system builder OEM (the ones you can buy at computer stores, like Newegg) license then you cannot transfer them. It is part of the lower price. You'll need to purchase a new license of Windows, which you can enter its product key in Start > Settings > Update & Security > Activation, and you'll be up and running.

 

For best experience, and ensure the highest reliability, it is best to clean install Windows 10.

 

Note:

- If you pass from BIOS to UEFI, or your old system was installed on a UEFI based system but set to Legacy mode (emulates BIOS), then you won't be able to start Windows 10, You'll need to do a clean install. This is because BIOS only works with MBR partition layout, while UEFI only works with GPT which is the new stuff for drives.
 

- If you set your old BIOS or UEFI SATA controller to emulate IDE/Legacy (to emulate the old fat ribbon cable), and now you have it set to AHCI/Native mode, then Windows 10 will also not boot, as it was configure for these age old systems using IDE cable. A clean install install is required.

Sorry, I'm new to pc and still learning a lot every day, when installing my new parts and they are hooked up and I enter the bios do I need a USB flash drive to boot up windows or will my hard drive automatically activate windows boot up and then I can put in my product key, I'm kind of confused lol? Thanks.

[JPStone]

19 minutes ago, MrCool127 said:

Sorry, I'm new to pc and still learning a lot every day, when installing my new parts and they are hooked up and I enter the bios do I need a USB flash drive to boot up windows or will my hard drive automatically activate windows boot up and then I can put in my product key, I'm kind of confused lol? Thanks.

If you have a drive with windows installed already it should boot. To update BIOS you need flash drive to Flash your BIOS. Go to you Motherboard manufacturer web page and look up the model motherboard. Find the support page for it and there should be downloads and instructions on how to flash BIOS to most recent version.

 

So far as Windows it is locked to the Motherboard of the system is was originally installed to. You would need to try and transfer the license using the steps outlined above. You can try it without reinstalling windows. If that does not work you can try to contact Microsoft Customer Support and if necessary you can create a windows install bootable flash drive on any computer with Windows 10 (just google Windows Media Creation Tool). Then you can fresh install Windows. If you choose this option make sure to pull any important files off the drive first as it will need to be formatted to fresh install Windows.

[LogicalDrm]

As for BIOS update, don't do it if you don't need to and since you are new to things. Its more likely that you mess everything. If this is situation where your mobo might not be compatible with your CPU, then you need either Asus workstation mobo to flashback, or actually working CPU to do the update. It won't boot if CPU and mobo are incompatible with each other.

[vorticalbox]

If you signed in with a Microsoft. It will activate Windows once you sign in.

 

Also Windows 10 doesn't really care about being activated, other then losing some personalisation options it works with any problems.