Question about upgrading system hardware and Windows 10

[lonewolfmage]

Greetings all~

I'm looking to upgrade my system

Specifically :
Motherboard
Hard drive ( going from HDD mechanical to SSD Sata or possibly NVMe 2.0 ) specifically

Since it has been well known and documented that the Win 10 activation is "tied " to the MOBO .. OR a Windows account ..

I KNOW a Hard drive swap is possible (done it ) .. but if i were to swap out the MOBO .. what would be the procedure to do that and STILL have a valid activation ??

***NOTE *** I am NOT looking for "hacks " or "pirate" versions ..

Any advice is appreciated .
If you need any other info let me know and ill provide .

Thank you in advance ..
~LoneWolf

 

[Beingdinu]

There has always been Windows 10 available at no cost, to upgrade from previous Windows or to do a Clean Install. You will need a Windows 7, or 8 product Key to activate. https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/software-download/windows10

make sure i would suggest upgrade first and then install the Motherboard and HDD

 

[lonewolfmage]

There has always been Windows 10 available at no cost, to upgrade from previous Windows or to do a Clean Install. You will need a Windows 7, or 8 product Key to activate. https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/software-download/windows10

make sure i would suggest upgrade first and then install the Motherboard and HDD

Sorry I wasn't more specific ..
Im well aware of the Free upgrade to WIn 10 .. that is NOT an issue ..
I do have Win 10 installed on this system currently .. this Windows installation has been upgraded from all the way back to Windows 7 .. it went from Win 7 Pro to Win 8 Pro to Win 10 pro all LEGAL upgrades

Im looking into more of the fact of when I change my MB and hard drive .. what would be the best way to go about doing that WHILE keeping my Win 10 installation activation without having to buy Win10 or an earlier version and then worrying about Activaiton issues.

My GUESS Is that if I extract the current Key ( Via Keyfinder progam ) i shoud be all set CORRECT ?? and won't have to purchase Win 10 and do a reinstall ..

 

[BigFeet]

It's going to depend largely on if you have a retail version or OEM version of Windows 10. If you have the retail version, and it's either tied to your microsoft account or you have the key, you should be ok. You may have to call microsoft if the activation doesn't take. If you have an OEM version, you will need to purchase a new key.

 

[Bighorn]

I have a number of rehabbed computers on hand that got the free Upgrade over the OEM version and were activated without problems.

 

[BigFeet]

I haven't tried swapping out motherboards with an OEM version of Windows 10, so I can't be sure. The only OEM version I have is on my laptop. But I have swapped out motherboards with a retail version with no issues.

Edit: I forgot my HP Elite is OEM, but I haven't changed motherboards. I have been kicking around upgrading the CPU to an i7 or Xeon though.

 

[Bighorn]

I also haven't tried the mobo swap, all of those I did were complete machines with only HDD changes where necessary [most of them] and add-in video adapters on my 2 IP machines where the onboard Intel Express adapter had no new drivers.

 

[Beingdinu]

As per my Exprience you can always get windows 10 without any problem from MS and they will activate for you when you tell them how exactly got it, Also will suggest keep the product ID handy which you can find Control Panel - System.