swapping my motherboard and processor resulted in losing my Win 10 Pro license?
So, last night I undertook some surgery, and replaced the motherboard and processor in my old gaming rig with a slightly upgraded combo so that I can squeak in under the minimum specs for Star Citizen. After the bootup, windows started telling me that my copy was no longer licensed.
Now, I had used the free upgrade from win 7 Pro, and as such had a win 10 pro install for the last 3 years or so. All above board. Now, the system is telling me I only have a win 10 home license showing on the system, and that I need to install home to use it.
Why would this happen, and how can I get my win 10 pro license back in good standing on the new hardware? Again, only the motherboard and processor have changed...
EDIT
I ended up purchasing a new license from StackSocial as suggested by pseudolobster below, and the issue is now resolved. Thanks to everyone for all the helpful responses!
Windows actually has a phone hotline you can call - https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/product-activation-for-windows-online-support-telephone-numbers-35f6a805-1259-88b4-f5e9-b52cccef91a0 they'll talk to you, get some details, and should be able to fix you up right as rain. Worked for me when I had hardware changes 3ish years ago.
Seconding this. I've had to do that quite a few times in the past after upgrading a computer or having a MOBO fail on me, and while it's a bit of a PITA to have to phone to get them to unlock the license so it can be reactivated on new hardware, it's thankfully never been refused or taken all that long to accomplish.
If someone bought a greymarket Windows OEM key and used it on their machine, I suspect they might be more likely to get refused though... so that's always worth considering before buying one of those instead of a more "legit" key.
Microsoft has some documentation explaining how to transfer a Windows license from one motherboard to the next, maybe that will help?
I went through the documentation I was lead to, and short of reinstalling the old hardware, they don't list a way to get that info out. Unfortunately, some damage occured during the swap, and the old pair is no longer all that viable without buying a new cpu cooler
You should be able to rig up some temporary Jerry rigged cooler (don't need to "properly mount it) to just boot up windows for the key. You aren't going to be stressing the cpu to do this and it will just throttle down if it gets too hot.
For all the things I hate about the Microsoft Account, I will say that using it for key management makes it much easier than trying to keep your license in check without it.
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/how-to-check-linked-license-in-microsoft-account/ff7bc311-08bf-4ea7-972d-44145f55548a
This is a recent change. Microsoft announced a few months ago they'd stop honoring Win7 keys for Win10/11, so if you change any hardware you'll lose your license. I think the original deal was they were only going to allow that for a year, but it continued working for several years. About a month ago they pulled the trigger and Win7/8 keys no longer work on 10/11.
https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/15/23958751/microsoft-windows-activation-issues-windows-7-8-upgrade-keys
As others have said, keys can be had for $10-$20 online, but those are varying degrees of sketchy. If they don't mail you a sticker there's a high chance they're selling the same keys more than once. If that's the case they may or may not activate. When that happens they may or may not send you another, and Microsoft won't help you.
Other times they're a volume license key that's only supposed to be used inside their business, and Microsoft may or may not revoke it in the future. I have found one source recommended by HN who's a Microsoft partner and their keys are completely legit:
https://www.stacksocial.com/sales/microsoft-windows-11-pro
Thanks for this. Turns out, this was the issue for me, so I went with a license from stack social as you suggested. It worked fine and was only the 22 bucks as promised, plus a few spammy emails, but I'm back to being licensed and legal again.
Thanks for the tip!
I had this same issue, I was able to recover the key but in the end it didn't work.
I was lucky enough to have an extra key registered to my windows account from an older laptop though.
Microsoft uses things like hardware to track changes in and manage activation. It’s a pretty common thing for it to give that error after changing your hardware out.
Where did you get your Windows license from? Maybe they have the original license key you can retrieve and re-activate it that way? Or if you can access the key, you can contact Microsoft and have them manually activate it.
If I was able to use the old hardware I would, but that's currently impossible. I had hoped they would have a method of recovery if there was a hardware failure.that.precipitated.the change...
If you signed in with a Microsoft account, you should be able to transfer it with no problem. On the activation screen, once you step through a few options, there should be an option for “I changed hardware recently”. Then you can click the old computer and it will transfer without issue.
@grimmcartel this is the answer! I had to do this recently and it was quick and painless once I figured it out.
That's terrible. Hopefully you're able to call them and transfer the license.
Have you considered switching to Linux? If you're having problems with Windows, now might be a good time to switch.
Buy a fresh copy of Windows on eBay for $20. Key will be emailed to you immediately.
Buy from a seller with a lot of good ratings and you'll be fine. I have been doing this for a while and it's always quick and easy.
I will say use this opportunity to make the switch to FOSS and install a Debian or Ubuntu!
You can change all the motherboards, RAM chips and slots, transistors, etc., yet Debian will work without a flaw or need for a license, that's the promise of open source.
If you drop your old MOBO back in and run software like Showkey, you can deactivate it on that one and put it on your new one.
That's gonna be... Tough.
Is there no way I can pull the key from the HD the way it's.set up now?
Not that I'm aware of, unfortunately. This is typically something you do before hand. You can take measures to rest the board gently outside the case, but run all the cabling to it for a quick boot and copy/paste...
It is possible if you still have the drive with the old windows install. I've done this a couple times
https://superuser.com/questions/636568/how-do-i-retrieve-a-product-key-from-another-hard-drive#636572
If you installed over the original though then this won't help.
You may be able to use Jellybean to recover the key off of the hard drive and try a manual re-entry, but if it's stuck on that motherboard, you may have to look into a replacement or just going without.
I will give that a shot, thanks!