If I change my motherboard & CPU will I have to reactivate?

[jayadratha]

As the question says. I want to upgrade my motherboard & CPU. Recently I got windows 10 update for free. & I heard that significant hardware change can deactivate windows. I don't want to go back to windows 8...

 

[fudgecakes99]

If you have the cd key or product key on you. It shouldn't matter. Also unless you swap out the active o.s. drive i'm fairly certain no matter what you swap out as long as it's not the motherboard or the main o.s. drive. You should be fine.

 

[jayadratha]

If you have the cd key or product key on you. It shouldn't matter. Also unless you swap out the active o.s. drive i'm fairly certain no matter what you swap out as long as it's not the motherboard or the main o.s. drive. You should be fine.

Yes I'm swapping out my motherboard & I have windows 8 key. And according to this link unless I do significant changes Windows 10 will not ask for the product key anymore in future if I do clean install or whatever.
Because windows 10 activation system remembers the machine on the MS Server after activation. If the same machine again want to activate then it will not ask any license key.

But if I do significant changes to my hardware I have to again clean install my win 8 activate it then again update win 10.

So I want to know if I don't do any clean installations & just replace my old motherboard and CPU with a new one will it deactivate? Most probabbly I will not change my HDD but in future I can change it to SSD

 

[RARRAF]

You would have too do a clean install after replacing a major component such as a motherboard but you can use your win 8 key too do a fresh clean install of windows 10

 

[fudgecakes99]

If your'e swapping out motherboards like that. Do you remember the boot record on your main hdd's drive. Was it a master boot or guid?

If you're swapping out a motherboard and cpu then i'd suggest waiting on upgrading to windows 10. Until after you swap out the parts completley. Why? well whenver you do a major change like that, o.s.'s need to be reinstalled. It's just the nature of the beast new bio's. I mean maybe you can squeak by if you had a x asus product mobo and swapped it to x v2 asus mobo. But even then i wouldn't get my hopes up.

My advice. If you haven't already installed windows 10. You're gonna need the cd key. You're gonna have to re-install windows 10 when you swap them out. If you haven't installed windows 8 i'd keep the usb or dvd-r windows 10 on a disk somewhere. Then install it onto the hdd again with the new parts in. I wanna say as long as you have the product key you should have the windows 10 copy permanently

 

[itmoba]

It's only a problem if you bought the OEM version of Windows. If you purchased the Retail version, then you should have no problem.

 

[jayadratha]

If your'e swapping out motherboards like that. Do you remember the boot record on your main hdd's drive. Was it a master boot or guid?

If you're swapping out a motherboard and cpu then i'd suggest waiting on upgrading to windows 10. Until after you swap out the parts completley. Why? well whenver you do a major change like that, o.s.'s need to be reinstalled. It's just the nature of the beast new bio's. I mean maybe you can squeak by if you had a x asus product mobo and swapped it to x v2 asus mobo. But even then i wouldn't get my hopes up.

My advice. If you haven't already installed windows 10. You're gonna need the cd key. You're gonna have to re-install windows 10 when you swap them out. If you haven't installed windows 8 i'd keep the usb or dvd-r windows 10 on a disk somewhere. Then install it onto the hdd again with the new parts in. I wanna say as long as you have the product key you should have the windows 10 copy permanently

Actually I have updated my windows 8 to windows 10 & its activated too.

Ok so there is no other way? I mean if I change those parts I have to install windows 8 freshly then activate it & then I have to update to windows 10 again. Is that correct?

 

[RARRAF]

No windows 10 will recognise your key

 

[USAFRet]

Licensing and activation
When you Upgrade from Win 7 or 8.1 to Win 10, you don't have a 'license key' in the traditional sense. The machine is activated, and that activation status is maintained because the activation server farm stores a has of the value of your old license key and info from your current motherboard.
When it checks for updates to the OS, it also checks to see if that hash matches.
If it does, carry on.
If not, then you have issues.

A new motherboard = a whole different hash. The activation servers know nothing about that hardware.
So even if you just plug that drive into the new motherboard, it deactivate itself.

Operation
With a motherboard swap, a full reinstall is highly recommended, often required.
"Aha", you think. "I'll just clean install Windows 10!"
And then you run into the activation issue. This would be like downloading the ISO, and just installing it on a awhole new PC. Doesn't work like that.

So how to fix this?
Swap the hardware, install Win 8, activate it and do all its updates.
Then Upgrade to Win 10.

Of course, with any major swap like this...be prepared for if things go south. Have backups of whatever you deem critical.

 

[fudgecakes99]

If your'e swapping out motherboards like that. Do you remember the boot record on your main hdd's drive. Was it a master boot or guid?

If you're swapping out a motherboard and cpu then i'd suggest waiting on upgrading to windows 10. Until after you swap out the parts completley. Why? well whenver you do a major change like that, o.s.'s need to be reinstalled. It's just the nature of the beast new bio's. I mean maybe you can squeak by if you had a x asus product mobo and swapped it to x v2 asus mobo. But even then i wouldn't get my hopes up.

My advice. If you haven't already installed windows 10. You're gonna need the cd key. You're gonna have to re-install windows 10 when you swap them out. If you haven't installed windows 8 i'd keep the usb or dvd-r windows 10 on a disk somewhere. Then install it onto the hdd again with the new parts in. I wanna say as long as you have the product key you should have the windows 10 copy permanently

Actually I have updated my windows 8 to windows 10 & its activated too.

Ok so there is no other way? I mean if I change those parts I have to install windows 8 freshly then activate it & then I have to update to windows 10 again. Is that correct?

I almost wanna say that would work, but it's probably not the case. I don't know the exact licensing agreement with windows 10. Even if you have the activation key whether or not it's licensed to that specific set of hardware or not.

My advice, at least try to install it with windows 10, but if that doesn't which most likely it won't. You're gonna have to go back and install windows 8 then re upgrade to windows 10. Also word to the wise. When installing go for 64 bit. If you have a 32 bit operating system on windows 8 and then download a windows 10 iso. It's automatically going to make it into a 32 bit operating system, regardless of what you'd want it to be.