Windows 10: Activating previous Windows 10 upgrade on new mobo

Hi All
A little advice please..

I have previously built a pc for a friend and used a Windows 7 pro licence key which activated fine. They then went and did the free upgrade to get the pc upgraded to Windows 10 Pro.

Now it seems their pc has had its motherboard fail and I will be looking to get them a replacement. It will no doubt require a reinstall of the operating system so here is where I'm a bit confused.

I have the original Windows 7 serial still and also the serial that was generated after the upgrade to Windows 10.

What is the best way to get their Windows 10 back and activated on a new motherboard. Do i reinstall the old W7 and then have to upgrade to W10 like previously or do I go and install W10 and enter the old Windows 7 key (or the newer W10 serial)

Rather confused...

:)

 

Windows 10+New motherboard

A new mobo means a new computer for licensing purposes. Windows will go into notification mode. If your previous OS is OEM (pre-installed by the computer manufacturer) you are going to need to buy an OS, regardless of what you do because your old OS will
not activate with a new mobo.

If your old OS is a retail (FPP) copy, then revert to it or reinstall it before you make the hardware change. Then when you change mobos it should reactivate online automatically or you can reactivate by phone. Then you can upgrade to Windows 10 again.

 

Windows 10 upgrade versus Windows 10 clean install

1-If anything but the mobo dies you can do a clean install and skip the step where it asks for a key. It will check with the activation servers and confirm your registration. New mobo=new computer it does not matter if you are on the upgraded version or
the clean installed version you will either have to install a previous OS, or buy a win 10 key

2-Same thing. It does not matter when it happens. If you have already validated (and activated) your installation ID, you can clean install unless you mobo dies.

 

Welcome to the forum. I assume the hd is ok and will go back in with the new board its a matter of seeing then if it stays active assuming it boots ok. A lot depends how different the MB is if it the same or simliarit may just work. If you need to do a clean install then you skip the request for a serial and see if it works as activation is held on MS servers

 

This is how Microsoft says to do it :
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/20530

The Windows 10 Pro product key you got from the upgrade is VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T and you cannot use that by itself to activate Windows 10 on a new motherboard that has never had Windows 10 activated on it before.

There is a good chance the Windows 7 product key will work to activate either Windows 7 or the matching edition of Windows 10.