Windows 10: I sell my PC and make a new one from parts. Can I keep my license ?

@Marron

It is simple. You had Win10 Technical Preview which you converted to Win10 Pro. For all intents and purposes and with due regard to your EULA (which you would have ticked agreement), you now have what is considered to be preinstalled license.

If you read your EULA you will see that this license cannot be transferred to a new device. It does say the license can be transferred to a new user together with the device (as they are now attached). You are therefore required to purchase either a standalone or preinstalled license for your new device.

 

He's trying to see if he can scam Microsoft were by using his Win10 Technical Preview version on 2 different computers since he already upgraded to 10 pro on his " older " pc and now what to see if he can re use the Win10 Technical Preview on the new one and then get the upgrade to 10 pro .... Good luck with that

 

I think most users ticked that without reading ... Anyway, good to know. It actually makes sense that it acts as a 'preinstalled' license, because they said 'Freely use win10 on the devices that you have already installed it on', or something similar.
Thanks. I'll just buy a retail license (even if it's expensive).

 

Nope. I'm not. I'm just going to sell my PC somewhere in October (a kid's father wants to give his son a good gaming PC for his birthday, so he asked me to sell mine) and then I'll buy a new one. Building a PC is always fun, and it's a good opportunity to try out water cooling. And just to note, I'm already grateful enough to Microsoft to not pirate their OS anytime soon. They let me be an insider, and I learned a lot of cool stuff in that time-frame, (commands like sfc /scannow, or how to move files from command line when explorer got completely corrupted, installed the OS many times in many different ways, upgrades, clean installs, played with buggy versions of windows, installed the most stable versions on friend's computers etc.), and what's more, they gave me free licenses for a bunch of computers: my PC, my laptop, my mum's PC, one of my best friend's laptop and that kid's old laptop. So I'll buy a retail version to say 'thanks' (and to activate my new PC, of course, even if it's expensive).


Now @alphanumeric
I wonder why you didn't say anything about the topic though.

 

Do you have a Retail Windows 7 or 8.1 copy kicking around? If it's not currently installed on any PC, install it on your new PC then do the free upgrade again. And save a few bucks.

 

I'm still and insider ,can you tell me how or where you had to go in the insider preview to get the free key for win10 pro from Microsoft

 

I think some just got lucky. They opted out (stopped insider builds) while running 10240 and it stayed activated.

 

oh, maybe I will opt out to see what happens

 

I don't have a free key. My PC is activated with the a generic key. Did I say that I got a free key somewhere ? Just do 'slmgr /xpr' and it'll tell you.

 

And I didn't opt out (and actually I dunno how to opt out or if it was possible). But I think you would be interested if I note this. I did a clean install with the official windows 10 iso (the one that you create with their program) and the PC got activated by itself. Just skip the serial key part and when you get into windows check and it'll be activated (that's probably the 'bound to hardware' part), but I did login with the same account that I was previously logged in (my account)

 

@alphanumeric
I do have a retail key, but I have no idea how to use it. It's the key that came with my laptop. When I installed Windows 10 (Technical Preview) on my laptop I wiped it's SSD so I don't use it any more, but it's still written near my laptop's battery.
But when I checked that key on Microsoft's website I get this:




EDIT: On a note, it's a Win7 PRO key.

 

You don't have to take the expensive route if money is an issue . I would instead try to buy an oem version of either windows 7 pro/ultimate or windows 8 pro and then get the free upgrade to windows 10 pro . It much cheaper and you can re install windows 10 as many times as you like on your new computer . The only advantage for getting a retail version is if you're planning to transfer that windows on a new computer again, and again and again and so on

 

You can always opt back in if the watermark doesn't go away. 10240 had no watermark or detectable expiry date. That sparked the "is it the RTM build debate". You weren't supposed to be activated unless you originally di an upgrade from a qualifying OS but I think a few slipped through the cracks and stayed activated.

 

Say anything about what in particular?

 

ok, mine is now showing watermark of 10532 ,and its a clean install done long before the release and not an upgrade