Windows 10: I am trying to link a Windows 11 machine to my MS account but it keeps telling me it...

I am trying to link a windows 11 laptop to my MS account. It asks me to enter the SN of the ne device. When I enter the SN it keeps saying that it does not recognize the SN even though I have verified that it is correct - even pasting in the SN from the manufacturers data. How can I connect this device to my account? I am well under the device limit and in any case I have never encountered a problem like this before.

:)

 

Win10 Pro - Digital Activiation - Not Linked to MS Account  

I've been doing some more swapping of OS on one of my machines recently, and checking my MS Account to see how it's list of devices behaves. The key step you may have missed out is to sign in to your MS account once you have the OS up and running. You don't have to sign in to the PC with your MS account, just signing into an app like the Store is sufficient. Seems that a 'device' is defined by the hardware ID or serial number of the PC, not the name your Windows uses for it. On recognising that it's the same machine but with a different name the existing entry in 'My devices' gets updated rather than appearing twice as separate devices.

 

Devices linked to MS account - an oddity

Win10 21H1 build 19043.1526 I'm preparing to replace the motherboard and CPU on one of my computers. I usually use local account on them, but I switched to using my MS account on the one I'm going to upgrade and displayed Devices on my MS account to see what it showed. I was surprised to to see (in addition to the one I'm going to upgrade) two other computers listed - computers that are using local accounts. And least one of those computers shows "Windows is activated with a digital account linked to your Microsoft account" even when it's using my local account. Cool, thinks I! I don't need to use my MS account on the PC I'm about to upgrade. So I switched back to my local account ... and the PC disappeared from my MS account. *Sad I tried switching back and forth a couple times with a couple reboots thrown in with the same result. This PC shows in my MS account only when I use the MS account rather than the local account. But sometime during this futzing around another computer showed up in the MS account's list of linked devices: a laptop that also uses only local accounts. And that laptop hasn't been powered on today so I have no idea why it was missing earlier and shows now.*Confused The devices that show in my MS account's list of linked devices are:

1. a Surface Pro tablet ordered from MS
2. a keyboard for that tablet, also ordered from MS
3. a homegrown PC that originally had an OEM copy of Win7 Home, upgraded to Win7 Pro, requiring my MS account and Troubleshooter to upgrade to Win10, and another use of my MS account and Troubleshooter for a motherboard and CPU replacement a couple years ago (so who know what MS thinks of that copy of Windows)
4. a Lenovo laptop with an OEM copy of Win10 Pro. (I don't remember ever using my MS account on it, but I guess I must have.)

At any rate, I assume I need to be using my MS account on the PC right before and after the hardware change in order for the Troubleshooter to get my activation to work, and I assume I can switch back to my local account once the re-activation is complete. But I really don't understand what I'm seeing on my MS account's list of linked devices.

 

Odd change in MS account list of devices

I was just checking my list of devices in my MS account, and I noticed two od things.

1) My Hyper-V virtual machines are just listed generically as "virtual machines" whereas they always used to be listed as "Hyper-V virtual machines". I liked it that way so I could tell Hyper-V machines separately from VMWARE VMS.

2) One of my VMs is now still listed in my MS account, even though I changed it to a local account. Previously device was always removed if you changed from MSA to local account. This is a good move assuming it is a change, not a glitch as this means the digital licence link will be retained if you changed to a local account for any reason.