Windows 10: Windows 10 Activation questions

Hi all,
I have a Dell laptop that came with Windows 8.1 pre installed. I upgraded to Windows 10 during Microsofts free upgrade period. Three months after upgrading to Windows 10 the laptops motherboard became faulty so Dell replaced it. Dell gave me a replacement product key to use with Windows 10. Having already used a Microsoft Account to sign into the laptop I had a digital licence linked to my Microsoft Account so Ive never had to manually type in a product key since when clean installing Windows 10.

The question I have is.. Im considering going back to using a Local account and doing a clean installation of Windows 10. If during Setup I selected to sign in with a local account (ignoring the set up with a Microsoft Account option) and bearing in mind that Dell changed the motherboard...would Windows 10 activation be no longer automatic because my Digital Certificate wouldn't be linked to my Microsoft Account anymore. I don't really want to mess about entering the product key manually again like it used to be in the old Windows days

:)

 

Windows 10 activation question

do the upgrade
it should activate automatically when online
if you want todo a clean install after that simply boot from your windows 10 installation media and when prompted for a key during install/post install select skip ..
it will re-activate within 5M of being online

 

Windows 10 activation question

Mine finally did although it was about 6 or so hours after as it was saying failed to activate.

 

Windows 10 Tweaks

Pressing “Windows+Pause Break” (it’s up there next to scroll lock) opens the “System” Window.

Windows 10: In the new version of Windows, Explorer has a section called Quick Access. This includes your frequent folders and recent files. Explorer defaults to opening this page when you open a new window. If you’d rather open the usual This PC, with links to your drives and library folders, follow these steps:

• Open a new Explorer window.
• Click View in the ribbon.
• Click Options.
• Under General, next to “Open File Explorer to:” choose “This PC.”
• Click OK

credit to Lifehacker.