Windows 10: Activation Key transfer from Old Laptop Win 10 Home to new PC Win 11 Home

I have an old laptop running on Win 10 Home that came with it. Although I'm eligible for the free upgrade to Win 11, system requirements are not met. I'm in the process of assembling a new PC. Wondering if there is any way to install Win 11 in new PC and activate it using the same key. Old Laptop is running the OEM version I checked and I got the key for it. Is there any way to surrender the old license and transfer it to the new one?

:)

 

Old win 10 pro key doesn't activate win 11

Hello,

I was using win 10 pro for 7 years with a multi computer CD key( original)

I recently built a new rig and installed win11 directly and used my old win10 pro CD key.

My old PC was synced with my Microsoft account and I used same account on win 11.

Now win 11 doesn't activate because of hardware change. I followed every possible troubleshoot from windows.

I was able to upgrade to windows 11 for free with my old PC but hardware requirements wasn't met.

I am not able to use my old cd key with win 11 ?

 

Upgrading from Win 11 home to Win 11 Pro - using Win 10 pro key

I have a new laptop - running Win 11 Home

My old laptop was upgraded to Win 10 pro from win 10 home

Can I transfer this upgrade to the new laptop and then upgrade this to Win 11 Pro ?

Without it affecting any programs that I have installed ?

What would happen if I just change the product key on my Laptop to the old Win 10 pro one ?

 

Transfer Win 10 license to new PC. What happens with the old PC?

Here is what has changed:

My laptop came with Windows 10 Home installed from the factory and the product key stored in firmware. I have since upgraded the laptop to Windows 10 Pro. Just a few hours ago I created a brand new VM on a different physical host computer which was built by me so it has no product key in firmware. I entered the OEM product key from my laptop into the Windows setup screen when it asked for a product key. As you can see, it is activated with the OEM product key from my laptop.

In order to "deactivate" the product key on the first computer, simply change the installed product key to the generic product key for that edition of Windows 10/11. The first computer will remain activated with its digital license but the original retail product key will now be freed up to activate the second computer with. Also, Microsoft now allows you to switch an OEM license to a Retail license simply by changing the product key to the generic retail product for that edition of Windows 10, as I have done below on the test VM that I created.

This means that you can have a computer, like my laptop, that came with an OEM Windows 10/11 installed by the factory, with the product key stored in firmware, change the product key to the generic retail product key, and then transfer (really copy) that digital license to a new computer via a Microsoft Account - and the original computer still remains activated when you do so. That's the reality of what Microsoft allows you to do and they are taking no action to attempt to enforce their End User License Agreement (EULA).