Windows 10 vs. New build. (Thinking towards the future.)

[Elizara]

I thought I'd ask. I had registered my copy of Win 10 to my MSN account when I upgraded.

Sooner or later (hopefully a few years later) I might have to have 'Neko rebuild my PC. (I usually save all the parts I can, tho don't know how much I can save with newer standards.) Since I don't have free support with MS anymore (been too long) thought I'd ask here for anyone who has this and did a rebuild; How big a pain in the butt is it to keep your old copy of Win 10 and use it on a new build? Would I have to get a new license or anything?

[Shenrien]

Win10 freaks out when swapping from one motherboard to the next, I had this issue about a week ago when formatting an ssd in my machine while another was being occupied that I wanted to install it into and the other party was not being cooperative. It will prompt that windows is not activated and you would need to activate it again. If you have a key you will be set but if you don't there is a command line you can run to pull it from your current installation.

Run CMD as administrator and put in the following command line.

wmic path softwarelicensingservice get OA3xOriginalProductKey

This should only work if you did not upgrade from 7, 8 or 8.1 and you purchased an OEM / retail license copy of W10.

[Elizara]

Shenrien; it's a upgrade from a retail (NOT OEM) copy of Windows 7. (I have a friend who can knows someone who works for MS and can get me things like that for a reasonable price)

I'll check that tho and note the product key just in case. Worst case, I might have to call MS if I do it (tho I'm not planning to for a while.)

[Edit] Nope, but I know I got a digital license, but yeah. Need to be sure and note stuff down in case. I'm getting The Ultimate Windows Tweaker right now just to have it; I liked TweakUI at one point on my old windows and thought tht might help.

[Edit again] Didn't, but here's another way to get the product key if you are in my situation. Produkey. It just works, tho I think it's the same as my retail Windows 7 key..

[Niya]

As long as you still have the original windows (7/8) key that you upgraded to 10 it should still work to just activate win10 with it again on the new hardware. Migrating the key via your MS account might work in some cases, but apparently only when the hardware of old and new pc (and the platform, so no change from pc to laptop and vice-versa) are similar.
Had that issue on my work PC (that was running on an upgraded win7 key), the activation helper that should have pulled the key from my MS account failed, or rather, it thought i'd have Win10 home instead of pro (yeah, sure, home in a domain environment...).
Had to use the normal key activation method and use the win7 key, that worked without hassle.

[Elizara]

Thanks Niya. At least I never ever get rid of disks that I think I might need one day; I didn't this time b/c I upgraded, so I held onto my copy of Windows 7. So I still have that key. ^^ (I gave my old copy of 98 to my brother for his archive, but not 7.)

And if I got a laptop, I'd be paying for a new copy of 10 anyway (Not likely at the moment) so that's not a worry. (I'd be more likely at this point to find a old lappy at a yard sale and Linux it.)

At least it shouldn't be too bad and hopefully I can keep this copy of Windows into the future, no matter how many times I have to have 'Neko tinker. ^^