Windows 10: Trouble moving digital retail Windows license to new PC activation fails

Hi.I have an insane trouble with Windows activation on new PC and could not find way of getting real support.Back in a day I purchased Windows 10 Pro license from Microsoft Store, so Digital Retail license.PC was updated to Windows 11 Pro and was working and activated.PC hardware become obsolete and built a new one.On the new PC I installed Windows 11 Pro and use my Microsoft account for login.Before doing so I deleted old PC from devices list on ttps://account.microsoft.com/devices.Unfortunately, Windows not activating. All troubleshooting steps from any articles from Microsoft - does not hel

:)

 

procedure to move retail license to new hardware using digital licen

Even if put that key showkey shows, it wont activate windows. I still have to follow the Brink procedure. So this extra step is not worth the effort. Win10 runs fine without activation, except for personalization. Whenever I have reinstalled windows, I just skip the key, then log in with my MS account. Only time I have ever used a key is for a first time 10 install, on hardware which has never seen win10. After that if you have a digital license inked to your account you can throw the key away, which is the way it should be, everything done online controlled by your account of activated pc's.

keys and discs and pieces of paper get lost and destroyed or stolen, so it is not very reliable, what has been proven robust so far is online accounts.

I even bought an old MB with CPU from ebay seller, prior owner had win10 pro running on it. All I did was install win10 pro, skip the key, login with my online account and it was activated with digital license to my account.

 

Failed Activation - Failed to move Windows 10 Retail from an old PC to a new PC

I would like some advice on how to proceed:

Situation:

I'm scrapped my old PC for a new one. I checked the installed Product KEY (using an app) and noted it down before deactivating the KEY from the old PC.

The following info for my old PC:

Product Name: Window 10 Home (Retail)

Product ID: 00326-10000-00000-AA248

Build Number 18362

Computer Name: DESKTOP-7A6S4US

My mistake:
I was at the PC store and the old PC was not connect to the internet at that time. Also I am not sure if my digital license was linked to my Windows Live ID. Though I previously changed some hardware (Mainboard, RAM, and main SSD which had the OS
on it) and that turned out fine, no issues with activation.

Then the PC store did an installation using a USB media they had and I thought that it would be easy with just signing in using my Windows Live ID for Activation. But I was unable to activate windows on the new PC. I tried both via Trouble shoot > Change
hardware method and Product KEY method for activation, both failed.

What I did so far: Remove old devices from my Windows Account Management page. I though not connecting to the internet when de-activating causes the Product KEY to be stuck with the old PC. So I deleted it....but now the old PC doesn't even
show up in the "change hardware" activation screen. It seems that I have a digital license but didn't link it properly with my Windows Live ID. Anyway to check?

So what should I do now? I'll have to wait until Monday to try and talk to local support (Thailand) but would be great if there's a way to recover/check if my digital license is still valid....or did I accidentally DELETE my digital license by deleting the
associated device?

Any advice or recommendation would be appreciated.

 

procedure to move retail license to new hardware using digital licen

In post #4, I explained that.

Here... you copy the key shown in Installed Key.
Then click Check Edition
Then type the key you just copied into the Product Key box.
Then click Check.











As you can see, mine is a Retail key.


When you install Win 10 with Win 7 key, it CHANGES the key to a Win 10 key.