Windows 10: Moving to new computer - activation question

Never had heard about ShowKeyFinder before. I used it now to check my original Windows 8 Pro key and also the Windows 10 Pro key (which I got from Microsoft support [no need to use quotation marks here]) - and they are getting confirmed as "Win 8 RTM Professional Retail" and "Win 10 RTM Professional Retail" keys.

My new PC is arriving tomorrow, and I'm wondering whether it now would not be better to wait until then and try to install and activate Windows 10 on it (before messing with anything on the old PC).

Coming back to the strangeness of this whole story I'd like to emphasise that I never installed anything illegal on this computer. I don't know what happened and how it happened, and I hope that this will come to an end with the new computer. Once that machine is running I will delete everything from the old computer and bring it to Goodwill.

 

Because I bought a used Lenovo ThinkCentre M91p for $70 from a refurbisher with around 10,000 positive reviews on eBay. It has a Core i5-2400 CPU and 8 GB RAM and will be good enough for me. It has a hard disk installed but no OS on it. I was probably a little bit naive but when I bought it I thought it would be no problem to transfer my Windows 10 Pro license to it.

 

Well....here's another little trick. If that computer ever had Windows 10 on it before, it probably has a digital license for Windows 10 for it stored on Microsoft Activation servers. So this is what I would do. Clean install Windows 10 Home on it, skip entering the product key when asked. See if that activates when connected to the internet. If that does not activate then trigger the upgrade to Windows 10 Pro by entering the generic Windows 10 product key ending in -3V66T. Then see if that activates.

If that doesn't activate then change the product key to your retail Windows 10 Pro Product Key. The Windows 10 digital licenses stored on Microsoft Activation servers are by computer - no by user.

 

Awesome. I will try that. Thank you.

 

OK then, if you bought a used PC, then you should have not said you bought a NEW pc *Smile

If that used pc has a COA with a readable key, then you can use that key to activate W10, and you don`t have to worry about using the key from another PC.

 

The computer came and I installed right away Windows 10 Pro, as suggested without putting in any key at first.

It did not activate automatically, and neither the generic key ("invalid") nor my Windows 10 Pro key ("installed on another computer") worked - but my original Windows 8 Pro key did. Really great. Thanks again.

It's also good to know that the Windows version on the old computer is tied to that computer which means that I can (and have to) give it away with this activated Windows 10 Pro version.

Thanks for all your help! I certainly learned something here.

Greetings -

 

Glad you got it sorted *Smile but if the motherboard is bad in the old PC, why would you give it away and forfit your now working and activated PC ?

 

Why would I risk forfeiting the activation on my new PC if I give away the old PC?

I activated Windows 10 on the new PC with my original Windows 8 key, and that was not the key that I used on the old PC. However, if you think that I should better trash the old PC to avoid any risk I would be happy to hear more details.

 

"It's also good to know that the Windows version on the old computer is tied to that computer which means that I can (and have to) give it away with this activated Windows 10 Pro version."

Not sure what you meant by this comment then.