Windows 10: New motherboard & Processor

I wonder if it is because I used the same computer name and if everything else was close enough:





Notice there is no serial number shown. Likely my old retail motherboard probably showed exactly the same thing - and computer name. @cereberus - a VM would be a different type of device, so it would not "inherit" the digital license as the host PC, and it probably has a different computer name as well.

 

@NavyLCDR - Interesting idea - it must have something to do with you keeping ssd rather than clean installing. I guess we will never be sure.

 

Talked to a MS support guy yesterday.

The initial question is how do I SEE my licenses on my MS account after connecting my 4 comps. Turns out I don't.
I am in this predicament, throwing everything out, migrating from DDR3 to DDR4 and from AM3 to AM4 so basically nothing will remain.


After getting that in his head, he asked me for my W7 licenses receipts. Sure, got them. So scan them and send them to us. Well the are not paper, I have bought three W7 from Amazon in '09 and '10 and those are digital receipts.

(Amazon no longer gives you the ability to look up receipts that old, btw . *Sad)

We settled on me sending in my W10 Product ID and a photo of my Authenticity Certificates. I also checked what license I have on the 10 machines and its Retail ( cmd:\> slmgr -dli ).

I tell you this, because I am not sure the Activation Troubleshooter Tutorial would help in my case, but then again, I am not there yet.

 

@ NavyLCDR On a clean install I get those auto generated computer names. Which seem to be different every time, even on the same PC? It's only latter on that I change them to what I want. Sometimes days latter. Those systems activate with the DL right away. Not saying your wrong, just a FYI post. I have yet to use the Activation Troubleshooter to transfer a DL. I have used it to fix an activation issue though. Occasionally I'll have a PC refuse to activate with a cryptic error message. In the past I would often get dead soldiers showing in my devices lists. The old name and the new name. I'd have to delete the old entries. Now, the names seem to change on their own. Takes days sometimes though for them to catch up.

If you have upgraded from say Windows 7 or 8, to 10, The Windows 7/8 product code is stored in the Registry. Showkey will find it. Is it tracked/looked at after you get your DL? I have no idea? I'm not even sure its looked at during the upgrade. My gut feeling is all they check is, is the qualifying OS legally activated, and what edition is it.

 

Are you using a Microsoft Account? If yes are any devise listed when you log into it online?
As far as I know slmgr will show all the upgrades as Retail, regardless of whether the qualifying OS is OEM or Retail. Which is likely why you can transfer any DL to a new PC.

 

@alphanumeric, the strange thing is that the new motherboard replaced the old computer on my Microsoft Account. But, as someone pointed out, it's possible that happened because it was the SSD with the same Windows 10 and not a clean install on the new motherboard.

 

Yes @alphanumeric, I tied my comps to MS . Tried doing it a while ago but turned out I had to log on to every comp using my MS account and that was a no go, so I waited and now they improved on it so I can choose to use a local account or an MS account as logon. Worst case one may use a pin, but considering my MS account pwd is along the lines of: $of01t3tGltUi6Qi%gLvRFwt0I2pVDo&K I was happy to be able to use a local account.

However, on my laptop, which I connected yesterday, I had to insert my MS password on first login, only to be able to select local logon afterwards, so it seems it works slightly differently depending on god-knows-what.

To answer you question, yes two of my comps show up when logging in to my account at MS, the laptop does not show yet, but I expect it is only a matter of a day or so. Not sure.

 

On the setup screen where you log in with your Microsoft Account, down in the lower left corner is an "offline account" option. Click that and you can setup with a local account. I use it when installing the Education edition. It won't accept a Microsoft Account, it rejects it. It wants an Office 365 account or Azure login. It defaults to "setup for an organization". 10 Home, for me, defaults to "setup for personal use". I still have the offline account option though. 10 Pro shows me the "setup for an organization" or "setup for personal use" screen. What follows depends on which option I select.

 

Activation is, IMHO so messed up. PC's that IMHO, should never get a DL, Enterprise for example, do. Then randomly they seem to block PC's that already have a valid DL? The activation servers seem to tilt every now and then? It would seem that the push is on to migrate every Windows PC to Windows 10. It's never been easier to do the free upgrade and or move an install to new hardware. I bet you your old hardware will also activate just fine if you put a new hard drive in it and clean install Windows 10. It shouldn't, but I bet it does.

 

The, not being a clean install, I would think is a big part of what went down. Why things went the way they did. I've swapped very similar hardware in the past, running Windows 7, and activation was un effected. ASUS M2N68 to M4N68 motherboard. New CPU and RAM at the same time. No reinstall, OEM system builders install. Usually, a motherboard swap triggers an activation fail.

 

Well it seems activation transfer has been automated based on the MSA. Thus, if an activation request is done via a registered MSA, and the HWID cannot be verified, it will seek an existing DL for that edition and update the HWID of that accordingly as a new DL (for the edition). The old DL (on the previous MB) will now be defunct.

This is a good thing, as it will auto-update the DL even should a chipset driver update change the HWID significantly.

 

How does it know which device is the old motherboard? Refresh my memory, what does MSA mean? Just want to make sure I'm on the same page. *Wink I think I get, that in this instance, this all happened because the hard drive was moved form one device to another? NavyLCDR's situation. And it was linked to his Microsoft account. Somewhere on that drive was the ID for the old device, the one that now doesn't have a DL? As it transferred to the new hardware. I think I need another cup of coffee, lol.

 

LOL.. MSA = Microsoft Account - stores the DL's there (that's where it seeks DL for each device linked)


Before:
PC.old = HWID1 = DL1 = OK

PC.new = HWID2 = no DL

Checks MSA and finds DL1 - asssigns HWID2 to DL1

After:
PC.new = HWID2 = DL1 = OK

PC.old = HWID1 = ?DL

I don't the SSD transfer has anything to do with it.... just the same edition that had already acquired a DL (and linked to the MSA) being used to sign in to PC.new.

 

Ok, that's what I thought it meant, just having one of those days I guess. You can activate without using a Microsoft Account though? I have no problem activating (with a DL) when setting up with a local account. Plus, several of my Pc's have multiple DL's for different Editions, Home ,Pro etc. Which one is linked? The one for the currently installed Edition? Or the one for the last Edition installed on that device? Or all of them? And when does that happen? Not really looking for answers to all those questions, just pointing out that there are all kinds of variables at play.
Ok, my real question is, as I have several PC's with multiple DL's for different editions. If I install 10 Pro on a new PC, do a skip key, and log in with my Microsoft ID. Following your logic, it's going to take a DL from one of my other PC's and move it to the new device? Not what I would want. Unless I'm misunderstanding what you said, highly likely by the way. *Wink I still think the SSD transfer had something to do with it. The PC's device name etc is all on it.

 

Agree 100%. I don't think the DL was moved just by the single action of logging in with a MSA because I have a bunch of devices on my MSA and my new "device" replaced the correct old "device" and I would hope that wasn't just a coincidence. I think it came from the already existing information on the SSD that was moved over.

Now, what would really have been interesting, but it's too late to try now, would be to remove the MSA login from the old computer first, leaving only a local account on it. Then move the SSD to the new motherboard and see what happened with just a local account. My prediction is that there would have been exactly the same results - because Windows does not activate from a Microsoft Account - it activates from Microsoft Activation Servers - which does not require a MSA. The digital licenses shown on the devices page of the MSA are only links to the real digital license info stored on Microsoft Activation Servers.