Windows 10: Moving Win10 (upgrade Win7 Full Retail Licence) to another PC

The EULA is a legal thing to protect MS against stupid law-suits which they have come up against past few years - for the most part you can transfer a digital licence (as it's no longer OEM.. grey area here) if it allows you.

 

There is no ambiguity here:-

Device can mean a real or virtual machine.

Device. In this agreement, “device” means a hardware system (whether physical or virtual) with an internal storage device capable of running the software. A hardware partition or blade is considered to be a device.

Stand-alone software. If you acquired the software as stand-alone software (and also if you upgraded from software you acquired as stand-alone software), you may transfer the software to another device that belongs to you. You may also transfer the software to a device owned by someone else if (i) you are the first licensed user of the software and (ii) the new user agrees to the terms of this agreement. You may use the backup copy we allow you to make or the media that the software came on to transfer the software. Every time you transfer the software to a new device, you must remove the software from the prior device. You may not transfer the software to share licenses between devices.

 

Just realised I'm not sure how the licence is transferred Is there anything to do on the old machine or is it just a case of install on new machine, deactivate in some way on old then activate on new?

I think you answered that, but how long will I be able to use the old machine once deactivated or do I need to make sure I have everything before activating on the new machine?

 

You ensure licence is digitally linked to MS account on old pc by being on version 1607 and logging in with MS account, install 1607 on new pc, use activation troubleshooter to transfer licence (see tutorial section) and then simply delete windows from old pc.

 

tutorial section here?

 

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/...dows-10-a.html

 

The OEM Marker found in the firmware, means that the BIOS has an OEM SLIC table in it. It would have originally been activated with an OEM-SLP key from the factory. That could not have been the key you entered. Those keys are blocked from being accepted as a manual entry to activate Windows. They won't work to activate Windows 7 or Windows 10 when entered manually. That means you either used the OEM-COA key from the COA sticker, or a Retail key. You say you used a Retail 7 Pro key, so what was in the SLIC table is irrelevant. It has no bearing on transferability. It is not the licence being transferred.

 

Thanks alphanumeric, that was mu hunch when I asked the question...or something like that anyway - I do not know the technical terms.

 

thanks for that link

 

Hi Don't know what I am doing wrong but the troubleshoot option does not appear on the new PC despite the fact that I am logged into my MSA on the old machine, I have installed Windows on the new machine from an iso created on the the old machine (which has Win10Pro digitally licenced from a RETAIL copy of win7Pro), the fact that I am logged into my MSA on the new machine which is showing as having Win10 Home installed despite having run the iso created from the old machine and gone through the set up process.

The new machine is still showing with a Home digital licence, activated, presumably because that is what is tied to the hardware of the new machine and no troubleshoot option on the activation page.

I'm stuck. Do I need to deactivate win10 home on the new laptop to get the troubleshoot option to show?

 

No, you need to upgrade to Pro to get the activation option, enter this product key, VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T. It should upgrade to pro, then fail to activate and give you the troubleshooter option. The trouble shoot option is not showing because its activated.

EDIT: Entering your 7 Pro key may work too. Use the Change Product Key option.

 

Thanks. I'll try my pro key first I think. But can't do that until later next week. Once I have done that I am still a bit confused about the activation on two machines. Do I need to deactivate on the old machine before activating on the new?

 

You need to uninstall it. reformatting the partition is the quick way to uninstall it.

 

*Ditto One way to do it is to boot from an install thumb drive, select custom install, then use disk tools to delete the system partition. Or all the partitions. Assumig you have all the files you need saved to external media.

 

Thanks. I know how to do it. The question is more about when. Before or after activating on the new machine. Naturally, I would assume that I will not be allowed to activate on the new machine until I have deactivated on the old?

UPDATE
Looking back through thread I think what happens is that the activation on new machine deactivates on old (when both are signed in as MSA - the transfer process)? Then all is left to do is uninstall/delete from old machine. Will it keep running an inactivated copy though?

Just trying to work out if I can get stuff off old machine afterwards or not, only because old machine encrypted with truecrypt and still trying to work out if veracrypt works with newer machines with UEFI boot loaders.