Upgrading cpu and motherboard, do i need to reinstall windows?

If you purchased a windows license either digital or hardcopy previously from Microsoft or a store you can reactivate you license and won't have to purchase a new one. If you however bought a computer in a store with a pre-installed version of windows on it, that you then never upgraded to a new version ( doing so would make it your license ) then you have a computer with what is referred to as an OEM license. This is a heavily discounted license purchased by stores to be sold with one set of hardware, think approximately $10 for a $300 retail license. Said license works fine with your computer and generally remains valid until you try to do something like move it onto a completely new computer. You'll be able to upgrade RAM, GPU, CPU etc, but once you upgrade the "motherboard" it is considered a new computer and the more restrictive terms for that $10 license purchased by your computer retailer kick in and you'll have to purchase a new registration. IF you ended up paying nearly retail value for said license that is a dispute between you and your vendor, not you and Microsoft. Vendors often do overcharge for these preinstalled windows devices and do not disclose the limitations but weather or not that is against the rules depends on the legislation where you purchased said device, generally speaking you'll see some tiny font print somewhere stating that you are buying an OEM license to windows and what that entails. This is why you can often buy these semi shady OEM keys on the internet, they are the same thing, fine on your device as long as you don't move the license to a new computer ( motherboard ) there is a support article here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/reactivating-windows-after-a-hardware-change-2c0e962a-f04c-145b-6ead-fb3fc72b6665#ID0EBD=Windows_10 that shows you how to check exactly what license you have and how to go about upgrading your hardware.

Hello, this is Emily.

No, you shouldn't have to reinstall Windows. However, you will most likely need to reactivate it. If it is OEM license - meaning it came with the device, you need to purchase new license. If it is retail license, you need to go through activation troubleshooter and select the change hardware option to activate it.

As for backing up data - it is always a good diea. The process shouldn't cause data loss, but just like any major changes, there's always a risk of things going wrong. In that case, better safe than sorry.

I have a similar situation, but my question is why would i have to buy a new license's when i already own the widows software on the computer i bought. I am only upgrading a part. this does not seem right.