Windows 10: Link Microsoft Account to Windows 10 Digital License

How to: Link Microsoft Account to Windows 10 Digital License

How to Link Microsoft Account to Digital License for Windows 10 Activation


Starting with Activation troubleshooter if you make a hardware change later, such as replacing the motherboard.

There is not a concept of a primary administrator MSA on a PC. So any administrator MSA that is verified on a PC will show as having the HardwareID associated with their MSA and the OS digital license associated with that HardwareID. Don't think of the license as attached to the MSA, but instead think of the MSA as having the authority to transfer the license. If you have two MSAs verified on a PC and you use one to go through the reactivation process to transfer the digital license, then if you try it with the other MSA you will get told it's no longer possible.

If you already used an MSA to sign in to your activated Windows 10 Home or Pro PC, your MSA will be automatically linked. You can use this MSA linked digital license to re-activate your Genuine Windows 10 device by running the Activation troubleshooter, if you run into Activation issues caused by hardware changes.

If you sign in to your activated Windows 10 Home or Pro device with a local account and not a Microsoft account (MSA), then you will need to add your Microsoft account to link the MSA to the digital license activated on your PC.

After you add your Microsoft account and link it to your digital license, you can use the Activation troubleshooter to help reactivate Windows after a hardware change.

If you didnt add your Microsoft account and link it to the digital license on your device, you wont be able to reactivate Windows after a hardware change using the Activation troubleshooter.

This tutorial will show you how to add your Microsoft account (MSA) and link it to the digital license activated on your Windows 10 PC.

You must be signed in as an administrator to add a Microsoft account to link to the digital license.



Contents

• Option One: Link Microsoft Account to Digital License without Switching Local Account to Microsoft Account
• Switch Local Account to Microsoft Account

EXAMPLE: "Windows is activated with a digital license linked to your Microsoft account"









OPTION ONE [/i] Link Microsoft Account to Digital License without Switching Local Account to Microsoft Account
1 Open Settings, and click/tap on the Accounts icon.

2 Click/tap on Email & app accounts on the left side, and click/tap on Add an account under Email, calendar, and contacts on the right side. (see screenshot below)



3 Click/tap on the Outlook.com option. (see screenshot below)



4 Enter the email address for your Microsoft account, and click/tap on Next. (see screenshot below)



5 Enter the password for your Microsoft account, and click/tap on Sign in. (see screenshot below)



6 If you turned on two-step verification for your Microsoft account, select how you would like to get your security code for verification, and click/tap on Next. (see screenshots below)




A) Enter the code you received, and click/tap on Next. (see screenshot below)



7. Click/tap on Next. (see screenshot below)

Do not click/tap on the Microsoft apps only link.




8 Click/tap on Done. (see screenshot below)



9 Your Microsoft account will now be added, and will also now be linked to the digital license of this Windows 10 PC. (see screenshots below)





10 You can now close Settings if you like.





OPTION TWO [/i] Link Microsoft Account to Digital License and Switch Local Account to Microsoft Account
1 Open Settings, and click/tap on the Update & Security icon.

2 Click/tap on Activation on the left side, and click/tap on Add an account under Add a Microsoft account on the right side. (see screenshot below)

You will not see Add an account if you are already signed in to Windows 10 with your Microsoft account since it will already be linked to the digital license.

If you’ve already added your Microsoft account to your device, you’ll see Windows is activated with a digital license linked to your Microsoft account on the Activation page automatically.




3 Enter the email address for your Microsoft account, and click/tap on Next. (see screenshot below)



4 Enter the password for your Microsoft account, and click/tap on Sign in. (see screenshot below)



5 If you turned on two-step verification for your Microsoft account, select how you would like to get your security code for verification, and click/tap on Next. (see screenshots below)




A) Enter the code you received, and click/tap on Next. (see screenshot below)



6 Enter the password of your current local account, and click/tap on Next. (see screenshot below)



7 Your local account you sign in to Windows 10 with has now been switched to this Microsoft account to now sign in to Windows 10 with instead, and your Microsoft account is now linked to the digital license of this Windows 10 PC. (see screenshot below)



8 You can now switch your Microsoft account back to a local account if wanted, or leave it as a Microsoft account.

9 You can now close Settings if you like.

That's it,
Shawn


Related Tutorials

• How to Allow or Block Microsoft Accounts in Windows 10
• How to View the Product Key in Windows 10
• How to Activate Windows 10
• How to Use Activation Troubleshooter in Windows 10
• How to Switch to a Microsoft Account from a Local Account in Windows 10

:)

 

Reinstalling Windows after upgrade Win10 for free (provided by microsoft)

None needed. You have a digital license for Windows 10.

See:

How to Link Microsoft Account to Digital License for Windows 10 Activation

Link Microsoft Account to Windows 10 Digital License

 

Windows 10: Will digital license of Windows 10 linked to Microsoft account?

 

Hello Guniu, *Smile

The digital license for your PC will still be linked to your MSA.

If you still wanted to use your MSA with Windows 10, you could use OPTION ONE in the tutorial below to have Windows automatically sign in to your MSA at startup.

Sign in User Account Automatically at Windows 10 Startup

 

I have done some interesting tests today.

I had a VM which had an activated version of Windows 10.

This VM1 was using an MS account, and was showing as activated with a digital licence, and linked to my MS account. I could see the device in my MS account as a device.

I created a new VM2, and used the activation troubleshooter, and as expected, I could see VM1. I did not actually go ahead to transfer the licence.

So far, nothing unusual. Now, here is the interesting bit.

I went back to VM1, and changed it to a local account. As expected, the device disappeared from my MS account.

Now I used the activation troubleshooter on VM2 again, and as I feared, it could not see VM1 anymore!

So I set VM1 back to an MS account, and guess what - I could see VM1 again both in my MS account and iv VM2 via the trouble shooter.

So the inescapable logic is that there is NOT a separate list of linked devices i.e. it is the SAME list as in the MS Account (attached devices).

The implication of this is quite important i.e. you must ALWAYS remain logged in via an MS account for the digital licence to remain linked. You cannot link it, then revert to a local account.

Brink - You might want to add a warning in main text accordingly (even as a possible caveat until somebody else verifies my conclusion).

Of course, you could revert to an MS account later but if your mobo fails whilst on a local account, you would be goosed.

Additional, it gets more complicated now if you have a dual boot pc with a home digital licence and a pro digital licence on same pc (how I am setup), as I have also discovered you can only link the last one setup to you MS account, even though both have a valid digital licence on the server.

The only way round this as far as I can see is to link each digital licence to a separate MS account. I do not know (yet) what would happen if you logged in to the other account ie cross matching.

 

cereberus,

Interesting. You would think that the digital license for each device would remain linked to the same MSA.

As a test, if you deactivate VM1 and try to activate again with the same key or license, does it automatically get activated from MS activation servers despite the device not being listed for your MSA?

 

Something interesting happened to my systems.

I had my Insider VM linked to my Microsoft account(and everything but Themes synced), and after the Anniversary update/upgrade, both my desktop, and my laptop, which both are on Current Branch, were automatically set up and link to the account to, without me having to do anything.
I'm guessing it has to do with "syncing settings"(which I finding more & more awesome all the time).

 

Not actually tried it specifically as it is harder to wipe OS in a VM and reinstall in same VM (keeping the same virtual mobo id). I am 99% certain it will work, as that you do not even need an MS account to activate a digital licence.

I will see if I can do it, but not at the expense of losing a licence (unless you are willing to underwrite the loss*Biggrin - only joking).

Well, I tried clean installing OS in VM1 which and ran into issues and could not do it but VM1 licence was still on device. So I put it in a new VM3 and tried to transfer licence from VM1.

VM1's digital licence had been previous transferred from another VM (say VM0) which has now been deleted and device removed from MSA.

Now what was interesting here is it refused saying I could not transfer digital licence from VM1 to VM2 as it had been transferred before (correct from VM0 to VM1). This was a surprise - I know the MS blurb said you could only move it a limited number of times but once only?

This is going to cause some upsets for sure if I am right.

 

Ok, that's bad news if the device couldn't be seen on VM2 after the MSA was unlinked.

What if I link my MSA, then unplug my internet cable and change back to my local account ? *Biggrin I'm assuming that the process of reverting to a local account wipes the device from MSA, so if I'm offline maybe it will stay on MSA device list. The question is, if I go online later on is it going to update the MSA automatically.

 

Interesting question - I will try it.

 

Couldn't do it tonight - activation servers seem to be inaccessible. Will try tomorrow.

 

Well well well - what do you know - this seems to bloody work - WAY TO GO MAN!

I stopped internet access, changed to local account and shut down vm.

Then I checked and MSA link was still there!

Then I restarted PC, and logged in with local account.

Then I checked again, and MSA link was still there!

Then I went to Store, and logged in taking care not to change to MSA, only logging in to app.

Then I checked again, and again MSA link was still there!

So it seems your assumption is correct. Of course, if at any time in future you login to MSA, and wish to revert to a local account, you have to remember to go offline again to go back to a local account.

 

Wow, nice. I wonder though, when MS finds out about it if they're gonna patch it out. Or maybe there already is a service that checks if the account is linked, like once a day or something. Well, gonna try it for myself and see how it goes with time.
Thanks for the testing cereberus.

 

Please let us know how you get on - we are all winging it on this at the moment.

 

Unfortunately, it doesn't stay for too long. *Sad
When I reboot to local account with internet access, after a while the device gets removed from my MSA. I thought that maybe logging in to MSA on my browser was doing it, so I logged in on my phone and logged out of MSA on my browser and tried again.
And now after about 20mins of being online the device just disappeared. I did launch Calendar to see if that's gonna do something. The device disappeared few minutes after I closed it, so not sure if it has something to do with it, or is it just a timed event that's gonna happen anyway.