Windows 10: How to deactivate Windows 10 I got from Microsoft Imagine in order to sell PC

My university is part of Microsoft Imagine program and this is how I got product key for windows.


In meantime I got new machine and installed Windows 10 with same product key.

I want to sell my old PC.


What I have tried:


1. Formatting hard drive did not work, as soon as I reinstalled windows it activated itself with digital license.

2. Running slmgr /upk (In order to uninstall product key) did not work, as soon as I restarted windows activated itself with digital license.

3. Running following commands:

slmgr /upk in order to uninstall product key

slmgr /cpky - this clears product key from registry

slmgr /rearm - to reset licensing status of the machine


At first this seemed to help, I restarted machine several times and windows was deactivated.

But when I performed update of the machine (Windows Update) then it activated itself again.


I simply can not believe there is no easy way to do this.

I do not want to sell my PC with this problem, because even if completely format my HDD, the person who buys it can simply reinstall and get copy of windows for free.

I know that license is somehow tied to my hardware components(motherboard mostly) but changing motherboard is not an option and I find frustrating there is no easy way to do this.

:)

 

How to deactivate Windows 10 I got from Microsoft Imagine in order to sell PC

My university is part of Microsoft Imagine program and this is how I got product key for windows.

In meantime I got new machine and installed Windows 10 with same product key.

I want to sell my old PC.

What I have tried:

1. Formatting hard drive did not work, as soon as I reinstalled windows it activated itself with digital license.

2. Running slmgr /upk (In order to uninstall product key) did not work, as soon as I restarted windows activated itself with digital license.

3. Running following commands:

slmgr /upk in order to uninstall product key

slmgr /cpky - this clears product key from registry

slmgr /rearm - to reset licensing status of the machine

At first this seemed to help, I restarted machine several times and windows was deactivated.

But when I performed update of the machine (Windows Update) then it activated itself again.

I simply can not believe there is no easy way to do this.

I do not want to sell my PC with this problem, because even if completely format my HDD, the person who buys it can simply reinstall and get copy of windows for free.

I know that license is somehow tied to my hardware components(motherboard mostly) but changing motherboard is not an option and I find frustrating there is no easy way to do this.

 

How to deactivate Windows 10 I got from Microsoft Imagine in order to sell PC

The problem is that person who buys my pc and install Windows 10 gets license for free, because even when Windows is completely deleted and reinstalled(which I did), it activates itself again.

 

How to deactivate Windows 10 I got from Microsoft Imagine in order to sell PC

Hi, bolevole,

If this license is youth you need to fully delete Windows from PC before selling. Boot from installation media, run recovery environment, command prompt and format disk. Or just cancel booting three times in row to get a recovery environment.