Windows 10: Changing Motherboard - Does This Require a Reinstall for Win 10 Pro?

Hello,

I am looking to change my motherboard due to some issues. It is currently an Intel LGA 1150 based board built by MSI. I am running Windows 10 Pro 64bit. I obtained this OS via the free upgrade last summer and did a clean install via the Windows 10 installer/downloader. The product key I had used was from a Windows 8 Pro OEM copy I had purchased previously.

I am planning on replacing the board with an AM4 based system, and I am not too sure what manufacture it will be - MSI, ASrock, Gigabyte or ASUS yet. My questions are the following:

1) Can I uninstall motherboard drivers, shut down the PC, perform the hardware swap, boot up PC and download new motherboard drivers without reinstalling Windows 10 Pro? Any precautions to take, or a detailed process to ensure this goes as smoothly as possible?

2) Reactivating Windows 10. Obviously the motherboard will require a re-activation process. I am wondering if this is possible since I obtained Windows 10 Pro via the free upgrade program. During install I entered my old Windows 8 product key; I am wondering if I will need to use this key again when re-activating?

3) Assuming the two above are possible, is there any reason to continue using MSI motherboards? Is going to an MSI motherboard to an ASrock motherboard more likely to cause an issue necessitating Windows re-install than buying another MSI board?

Do note that I will be making a back up of important data and will likely be making an image of my OS drive beforehand in the event of problems. But any advice is appreciated.

:)

 

If I change my motherboard, will my windows 10 license still be active?

I am afraid that I have windows 10, which is upgraded from OEM installed win 8.1.

So, there is no option to switch to windows 10, if I change my motherboard, or is there any?

Like, if my HDD is having active win 10 that is upgraded from win 8.1, and I change my motherboard, does the updated windows 10 on my HDD have a capability to communicate with new motherboard?

Regards,

Bala

 

Error while trying to play FIFA 08

Hey, I have bought new computer:

AMD 8300

Nvidia GeForce GT 1030

8 GB ram

Motherboard from Gigabyte

Win 10

And when I try to open it this shows:

"FIFA 08 Requires Hardware graphics acceleration"

How i can turn it on (this game)?

I already tried:

- reinstaling drivers

- reinstaling DirectX

- updating both of them

- changing settings in driver

- switching on as administrator, and with Win 7 compatiblity

Thanks for help!

 

As long as you upgraded to the free version of Windows 10 you should be okay making hardware changes. This link may be useful:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/20530/windows-10-reactivating-after-hardware-change

How to Use Your Free Windows 10 License After Changing Your PC’s Hardware

 

Thank you for the reply. So essentially I need to make a Microsoft account which seems fairly simple. That covers the activation issue part of the question. How about swapping motherboards without reinstalling the OS?

And after the hardware change, I'd like to go back to using a local account. Do these steps still work for removing the Microsoft account in current builds, and will the OS stay activated once the Microsoft Account is removed? :
How to close and permanently delete your Microsoft account | Windows Central

 

I've moved Windows 10 from computer to computer with no driver problems with the hardware change. All of the computers in question already had digital licenses for Windows 10 so they just activated themselves. You will have to use a Microsoft Account and the activation troubleshooter to transfer the license.

Once you have Windows 10 activated with a digital license, you can switch the user account back to a local account and it will stay activated.

 

Thanks for the reply. Should I uninstall any possible motherboard drivers beforehand, or will Win 10 uninstall and reinstall the new drivers on its own?

 

hi

Well it will probably work but no 100% guarantee. If it was me I would clone old drive to a new one, and try it first. Personally if I had a new pc or mobo, I would not use an old drive with it.

 

In this link they recommend uninstalling all drivers related to the motherboard (sound, usb etc) before switching motherboard to reduce or eliminate any potential driver conflicts: Change Motherboard Without Fresh Install of Windows; Britec) Change Motherboard Without Fresh Install of Windows - YouTube

 

I did not uninstall anything first. I built my desktop computer, and had my old desktop computer left over. The hard drive from my father-in-laws computer got moved from his desktop to my old desktop because it was an upgrade. That went fine. Then my daughter's laptop needed to be sent in for repair. I took her SSD, moved it to a spare laptop - completely different make, model and hardware. That move went just fine. Then when her laptop came back from repair, that same SSD was then moved back. All with no problems at all.

 

Thanks for the reply. Seems like Windows 10 will, for the most part, not have any problems. I'll still do the image as a precaution. Thanks for the insight!

 

If your Windows license is oem then a motherboard change would require a new license as the oem version of Windows is tied to the motherboard.

 

You would think so, but that`s just not the case with W10 and a Microsoft account.

If it were me, with a new board, I would do a clean install.

 

I replaced the MB and had a problem activating, it ended up being pretty easy to resolve the activation problem. This is post #6 in this topic Replacing Motherboard Questions Solved - Windows 10 Forums

The bolded text was the solution for me. You may be ok, but this is something to try if you have to.

 

AddRAM is correct regarding activation. MS doesn't seem to care much more about an OEM license kept tied to a single motherboard.