Windows 10: Windows license recovery and my Microsoft account's devices

I recently changed my motherboard and CPU. In other words I did a hardware change. Before the hardware change I wrote down my Windows 10 Home product key just in case any issues occurred. After the hardware change I was unable to activate my Windows 10 Home license that I previously had. It was activated and linked to my Microsoft account. After troubleshooting with no solution, I decided to use aWindows 10 Pro product key. My device is now activated with a Windows 10 Pro license that is linked to my Microsoft account. After doing this I looked at my devices in my Microsoft account and it showed that I had two devices. Both devices have the same name. The device that shows the new hardware says it is using Windows 10 Pro, so that is correct. The other device that shows my old hardware says it is using Windows 10 Home. The problem is that the device showing Windows 10 Home does not exist. I only have ONE computer. I swapped the motherboard and CPU. Then I used a Windows 10 Pro product key. My question is, how can I "de-activate" the non-existent device and free up the Windows 10 Home license that it says it's using?


Important Info:

- I only have ONE computer/device.

- After the hardware changed I used a Windows 10 Pro product key, and my device is now activated with a Windows 10 Pro license linked to my Microsoft account.

- I have the old Windows 10 Home product key but it cannot be used because Microsoft thinks it is currently activated, which it is not.

- In my Microsoft account it says that I have two devices with the same name, one using Windows 10 Pro, one using Windows 10 Home.

- The device that shows Windows 10 Home also shows my old hardware. My old hardware is not being used for anything currently, it is sitting in a box, therefore the device that my Microsoft account thinks is using Windows 10 Home does not exist anymore. Again, I only have ONE device.

- I have contacted Microsoft support but was unable to find a solution due to communication issues.

:)

 

Link Microsoft Account to Windows 10 Digital License  

This is what i get on step 2

 

Link Microsoft Account to Windows 10 Digital License  

I'm having the same issue.

But I also have a device named "PC" in the device list now. It's just PC. I guess it appeared after the Anniversary update.

Before the update, I could see my computer on the MSA device list, even though I've been using local account. But now it appears only if I login to W10 using my Microsoft account. If I switch to local account, it disappears. But the "PC" stays there whether I use MSA or local acc.

So what's that "PC"? Any ideas?

It's also not cool that MS forcing people to use MS account to login their PCs. Activated devices were always in the device list even if you use local account before that so called update.

 

How do I manage the link between a Windows 10 license and a Microsoft account?

This is an answer to your first question: See which Microsoft account the license is linked to.

There is no direct way to show to which account a digital license is bound to. The account device list of the Microsoft account cannot be trusted: If I add another (non admin) user with a Microsoft account to my machine, the name of the computer will be added in the device list of the new account, too. Certainly, the digital license of my computer is still bound to my (admin) account and not to the new user.

Therfore you have to check the list of digital licenses in every Microsoft account you own.

The only method I know to list digital licenses bound to a Microsoft account is to try to transfer them to a new, "unknown" hardware. "Unknown" means, that on this hardware Windows 10 has not been installed before. "Try" means just to begin the transfer process until the last step and not to finish the activation process.

This new, "unknown" hardware can be a real hardware (new mainboard) or a virtual hardware (e.g. VMware virtual machine). It's important to note that the fingerprint of this hardware shall not exist in the database of Micrsoft's activation servers. Otherwise the hardware will be activated automatically and you won't get a chance to transfer a different digital license to it because it already has a digital license. The transfer process won't get offered.

My method for Windows 10 b1607 is as follows:

• Create a new virtual machine (VM)
  
• Install Windows 10 without any product key (the edition does not matter, Home or Pro, x86 or x64)
  
• Try to activate the VM
  
• Enter the windows activation dialog where it is possible to transfer your digital licenses to this VM ("Troubleshoot", "I changed hardware on this device recently")
  
• Enter your Microsoft account credentials of the account which you want to check
  
• Now you get a list ("Reactivate Windows", "Select this device from below") of devices which are bound to your Microsoft account and which have a digital license and which are in the same "device class" as your current device (the VM). This device list is the first part of the whole list of digital licenses of the account. "Device classes" are e. g. laptops, standalone PCs or virtual machines. In my opinion virtual machines are separated in different device classes, too (VMware, Oracle, etc.)
  
• To see the second part of the list of your digital licenses you have to list all devices which do not match the current VM, i.e. which belong to a different device class. Click on the link at the bottom of this page: "See other devices linked to your Microsoft account". Now you get the second part of the list of your digital licenses which belong to devices that cannot be transferred ("Device type does not match", Edition does not match")
  

This whole process seems to be reliable in respect to list my own digital licenses which I bound to different Microsoft accounts. However, some devices of the second list ("We can't reactivate Windows from these devices" ) migrated after some days to the first list ("devices which can be activated"). But this does not matter as the device entries stay the same.

And of course there is no guarantee that devices which are shown in the first list can be reactivated with the device with which you are currently checking the license. E.g. when I check with my virtual machine I also get some digital licenses in the first list which belong to a different device class (e.g. standalone PC). I am sure that a transfer from a license like this to a VM would not work in reality.