Did your PC suffer a catastrophic failure requiring new hardware? Have you upgraded to better components and Windows 10 just doesn’t recognize your PC? This guide shows you how to reactivate Windows 10 after a hardware change.
What Counts As a Hardware Change?
That’s an area even Microsoft won’t fully explain. Instead, the company provides this statement on its website:
“If you make significant hardware changes on your device, such as replacing your motherboard, Windows will no longer find a license that matches your device, and you’ll need to reactivate Windows to get it up and running.”
Documents retrieved by Paul Thurrott, however, state that hard drive replacement does not fall under Microsoft’s “substantial change” label.
Digital License for Pre-Built Systems
The big reactivation roadblock likely stems from laptops and desktops pre-built by Acer, Dell, HP, Samsung, and so on. For a long time, these OEMs printed product keys on labels stuck to the PC’s chassis.
Since the days of Windows 8, manufacturers have stored keys in the BIOS or ACPI table (via UEFI) located on the motherboard. If you need to reinstall the operating system for any reason, Windows 10 will retrieve that key during activation.
The move to onboard keys stems from piracy. Microsoft simply doesn’t want customers installing Windows on multiple computers using a single key. The company originally dubbed this one-key-per-device method “digital entitlement” but began using the term “digital license” with Windows 10 Anniversary Update. Keys now link to your Microsoft account.
That said, reactivation can be problematic if you manually replace the motherboard in a pre-built PC. The embedded key is lost, requiring a call to Microsoft to verify the hardware change.
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from How-To Geek https://ift.tt/2q3ud7W
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