Whether it was pre-installed when you purchased a new computer or if you purchased it separately; You have paid for your Windows 10 license to the left or to the right. You might think that you can do whatever you want with it. But it is not that simple.
When you have purchased or “received” Windows 10 from a new computer, installed and activated it, it is inextricably linked to the computer on which this operating system is running. Just use that license (code) on another computer and then also install Windows 10 on it, that is not possible: you must also pay for a Windows license for that other computer.
Upgrade hardware
But what about when you upgrade your computer’s hardware? In the past it sometimes happened that (when you replaced your motherboard and processor, for example) the license of Windows (for example with Windows 7) suddenly became invalid, and you ended up with a deactivated copy. Windows 10 seems to be more flexible in that respect. Although Microsoft does not exactly explain how much of your hardware you can change before you have to reactivate the operating system, it has become a lot easier. In any case, you can replace or upgrade your memory indefinitely, change your hard disk and connecting additional peripherals will never affect your Windows 10 license. If you change part of all hardware (for example motherboard, processor and memory) in one go, there is a chance that Windows 10 will “nag”. With Windows 10 too, Microsoft naturally checks whether the license you are using is not being used on another computer. Running two Windows 10 systems with the same license is therefore not possible anyway.
Link license to Microsoft account
The best way to “secure” your Windows 10 license is to link it to your Microsoft account. If you link your Windows 10 license to your Microsoft account, the chance is much smaller that you will encounter problems with the license when upgrading your hardware. That is because the license is then actually linked to you as a person and not just to your computer. Via the online environment from your Microsoft account you can see exactly which computers are in your name. These are all computers that you have ever logged in with an @ hotmail.com or live.nl account. These are automatically displayed in you Microsoft environment.
You can set up Windows 10 once during installation with a Microsoft account, then activate the operating system and then create a local account within Windows 10. So you don’t have to log in with a Microsoft account each time to activate and keep your Windows 10 system activated.
Request license
If you have an oem license from Windows 10 (this is the case if you purchased your computer with Windows 10 pre-installed), you cannot transfer that license to another computer. It is different when you have purchased Windows 10 separately, for example via a webshop (where you receive a digital product code) or in the store. You can in principle also install this so-called retail version on another (new) computer, provided that you first deactivate the old computer. It is not possible to run a retail license on multiple computers. Via a number of commands you can find out what kind of license your Windows 10 PC has. Open the Command Prompt via the start menu and start it with administrator rights. Type the following line:
slmgr / dli
A screen appears in which you can see what type of license your computer has. If you bought Windows 10 separately, you will see it on the right side of the window RETAIL channel stand. With a pre-installed Windows 10 version (an oem version) it says OEM_DM channel.
Have you ever performed a free upgrade, for example Windows 7 or Windows 8 to Windows 10? You will then also see whether that license is an OEM or retail license.
Deactivate license
If you plan to install Windows 10 on a new computer, you must deactivate Windows 10 on the old computer because you are not allowed to use two versions with the same license key. Windows 10 regularly checks in the background whether your license is valid, so there will come a time when one of the two computers will be automatically deactivated. Via the aforementioned command, but with a different parameter, it is possible to deactivate a Windows 10 computer. That way you can easily install Windows 10 on another (newer) computer. Open another Command Prompt with administrator rights and use this command to deactivate Windows 10:
slmgr / upk
The license key is then immediately released and the installation of Windows 10 on which you have run this command is deactivated.
On the new computer, install Windows 10 in the normal way and enter your product code during the installation, or afterwards at the component Activation in the settings window.
You can still upgrade to Windows 10 for free
Are you still waiting to upgrade to Windows 10 because you are afraid you have to pay? No problem, upgrading to Windows 10 is still free. All you have to do (from Windows 7 or Windows 8) is download the upgrade tool. You find that here. At the top of the page you will find the button Update now. If you click on that, a tool is first downloaded (Windows10Upgradexxxx.exe, where the four xs represent the version of the file, which may differ).
After downloading you start the tool and after a while the update procedure appears. Choose the option Update this PC now. The tool then downloads the files needed to upgrade Windows 7 or Windows 8 to Windows 10 in the background. Downloading can take a while, since it is about 4 GB of files.
Sometimes this tool can give a message that a certain program is not compatible with Windows 10. If you see that message, you have to remove the program in question from the Control Panel, but usually you can continue with the upgrade to Windows 10. You can even take all your old Windows 7 accounts and part of the settings to Windows 10.
