Want to give my PC to a friend

[bimfi]

I am in the process of building a new PC and want to give my current PC to a friend. The problem is that I don't want to leave any personal information on it. It has Windows 10 Pro already installed on it, but it is registered to me under my Microsoft Account. What must I do to allow him to register it to his own account? For my new PC build, I have a brand new Windows 10 OS that I will use for it.

 

[Trouble]

Just perform a Reset and choose to keep nothing.
That will get rid of all your files, data and applications, then....
When it reboots he can use his info to create the user environment that the system will use.
The Windows 10 installation is unique to the machine and not to your account.

 

[bimfi]

Thank you. That seems easy enough!

 

[bimfi]

On that same note, I want to keep all of my own settings and desktop icons, etc from my current PC to transfer to my new PC. If I do a "system image" of my C:\ drive, can I transfer that image to my new PC once I install my new Windows 10 OS or will there be any conflicts? I really don't want to appear to be too naive. Thanks.

 

[Trouble]

Settings..... generally..... no.
Desktop icons and those things associated with your profile and of course your data...... Yes.
An "image" would probably be semi-worthless except for it's point in time, backup value. You can of course mount the image and copy the contents of your profile folder (C:\Users\YourUserName) which is where your desktop icons, docs, music, pictures, downloads, video, favorites, etc. reside (unless you've relocated them).

Generally, when I do such things I just copy off the profile folder to back it up.
Then copy the contents of the individual folders into their new respective locations on the new computer.
Don't worry about the app data folder. It will reconstruct itself as you reinstall your applications.

NOTE: Desktop shortcuts that point to installed applications will not work until you reinstall those applications.

 

[davehc]

I am sure Trouble is correct. (he usually is!), but the activation is connected, now, to your MS account, not to the hardware.
I have recently changed two motherboards, and on a reboot, found the OS activated.

You might find this useful reading:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/20530/windows-10-reactivating-after-hardware-change


But it might be a good idea to clear the product key from the old computer. You can do this by opening a command prompt (admin) and typing
command: slmgr.vbs /upk.

 

[Trouble]

All I know with absolute certainty is that you can take a computer that has had Windows 10 installed previously and activated.
You can wipe the hard drive with a low level format or replace the hard drive entirely.
You can then perform a custom clean install of Windows 10 (identical to the previous version), skip over the request for a key, create a John Doe local user with any name you might choose and when it is finally done and an internet connection is present..... You can check the activation and you will find that it has been activated with a "digital license".

I just did it on two separate laptops after having replaced failed hard drives in both. Not knowing what the owner might prefer as a user name or password and not knowing if he or she would want to use or even had a Microsoft account, I simply created a user named User and left the password blank.

 

[Grizzly]

I am sure Trouble is correct. (he usually is!), but the activation is connected, now, to your MS account, not to the hardware.
I have recently changed two motherboards, and on a reboot, found the OS activated.

There seems to be divided opinions about this matter. I have never activated any Windows version with a Microsoft account, yet all my Windows were activated and with Windows 10 the activation was done with a hardware token that is stored on MS servers hence the digital license. Since my Windows 10 versions only run on laptops, I cannot confirm that after a drastic hardware change windows will still be activated...

 

[Trouble]

I cannot confirm that after a drastic hardware change windows will still be activated

I've attempted it a couple times without success, however I believe in both instances it was on an insider preview version, so that might be related to the issue, perhaps their servers do not store insider preview install info.

I've heard other report that the troubleshoot and then the I changed hardware link have actually worked for some. I've never had occasion to use it with any of my other normal install machines.

 

[davehc]

I found this. I have summarised the info into a *.doc, attached. In the first para is a link to the Microsoft original.
It seems the digital entitlement is in the bios and linked to your Microsoft account. It is possible to extract it, but that is for private investigation. Change the *.txt to a doc in order to read it

 

[ram1220]

I have actually had to change 2 motherboards in my system. Once due to a failure and the other I wanted to upgrade some features. As long as the original motherboard was registered with MS using my Microsoft account I was ok. After installing both new motherboards all I had to do was login to Windows using my MS account. Then I told MS that I wanted my Win 10 activation on the new motherboard. All was good both times doing it this way. After the activations were changed I then logged out of my MS account and logged back into Windows 10 using my Win account.

 

[bimfi]

I really appreciate all of the feedback and recommendations. So, just to clarify, I have a new unopened Windows 10 Pro that I plan on installing on my new build. The existing Windows 10 pro that is on this current PC (the one that I plan to give to a friend) will stay on the PC, though it will be reset, and hopefully will remove all of my files, data and applications. I'm hoping that it works. I will not do anything until my new build is up and running. Then I will place the two PCs side by side and see what I can do. I will refer to this post to follow any and all recommendations that pertain. Thanks to everyone!

 

[Grizzly]

Question: Do you hand over a clean system without any programs/apps installed or do you just want to delete your data from the "friends" PC?
If you want to reset it, why don't you put another HDD in that "old" PC and install the system fresh, therefore being able to keep your old HDD without needing to delete everything.Since both versions are the same (PRO) you should not have any issues using your old drive on the new system (of course drivers will be updated and you might have to activate it with the new key you bought) unless the architecture is different (32/64bit).
HDD's are not that expensive and a 500GB goes a long way for normal use....

 

[bimfi]

Question: Do you hand over a clean system without any programs/apps installed or do you just want to delete your data from the "friends" PC?
If you want to reset it, why don't you put another HDD in that "old" PC and install the system fresh, therefore being able to keep your old HDD without needing to delete everything.Since both versions are the same (PRO) you should not have any issues using your old drive on the new system (of course drivers will be updated and you might have to activate it with the new key you bought) unless the architecture is different (32/64bit).
HDD's are not that expensive and a 500GB goes a long way for normal use....

You make a good argument. My thought was to use a new SSD for my new PC (which I already bought), but now that I think about it, I could use the new SSD in my new system as a storage device. I also have an old (my first SSD) Intel 125GB SSD that I could use to install windows on the "old" PC. Yes, I think that will work out nicely. Thanks for mentioning that. I think I will do just that!

 

[Grizzly]

If the 'old' drive is a spinner (a normal HDD) you could clone the old drive to the new ssd (you will get a real push in performance) and still have your files.
Programs for cloning are plenty like Acronis True Image, Macrium reflect, Clonezilla etc...