Windows 10: Bought a new motherboard and CPU to allow upgrade from windows 10 to 11 - but after upgrade...

Hi,Some years ago I bought a copy of Windows 8.1 Home full boxed copy, not OEM. A couple of years later Microsoft offered a free Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 upgrade and I upgraded. That was about 7 years ago. As Windows 10 support was ending and Microsoft were offering an upgrade to Windows 11 I decided to upgrade again. This meant buying a new motherboard as my old motherboard didn't support TMP 2.0.I moved my existing SSD with Windows 10 on over to the new motherboard. Hardware upgrade and upgrade from Windows 10 -> 11 seemed to go well, but now windows > activation tool is saying "W

:)

 

Can I still upgrade to Windows 11 if I change the storage drive, CPU, and motherboard?

My PC does not meet the minimum requirements to upgrade to Windows 11 (Pro). In order to accommodate this upgrade I've bought a new storage drive, CPU, and motherboard. The new drive is much faster than the other drives, so I'd like to use it to store Windows instead of the original drive.

• Is it possible to immediately activate Windows 11 after I install it on the new drive using an installation disk?
  
• In case activation isn't possible because I don't own Windows 11 yet, would it work if I installed Windows 10 first and then upgraded to Windows 11 instead?
  
• Or would it not activate either copy of Windows 10 or 11 because my PC isn't recognized as the original due to the changed parts?
  

I would very much appreciate any help or suggestions.

 

Upgrading Motherboard and CPU

I bought a default Lenovo K450 a few years back that came with Windows 8 preinstalled. Well over the past few months I've upgraded the PSU, GPU, and moved too an SSD without much of a hassle since I was using the same motherboard and CPU. Well, I'm moving
too a whole new upgrade and changing the case, motherboard, CPU, and adding a network card. My question is, once I've changed out all of the parts, will I need to reinstall Windows 8, or can I just install Windows 10 again like normal and follow the steps
with customer support to establish the legitimacy of my previous Windows OS? I have the OEM and Product Key.

 

Windows 10 and upgrading motherboard

Hi,



Thank you for bringing up your query on Microsoft Community.



The only hardware changes that can negatively impact activation status once you upgrade to free version are the changes to the:

• CPU
• TPM
• Motherboard replacement

The following changes are examples of hardware changes that will NOT impact the activation status:

• HDD/SSD
• Video card
• Adding extra memory

Let us follow the steps suggested by Andre Da Costa (replied
on July 26, 2015) in the following thread:



Will Upgrading Motherboard After Upgrading To Windows 10 Make Me Lose My Windows License?

Redirecting



Kindly let us know if you need any further assistance with Windows, we are glad to assist you.