Reinstalling Windows 10, different computer

Question

Hello,

I have an old Compaq minitower and I took advantage of the first free upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10; I also have an Acer laptop and did the same process of upgrading from Windows 7 to the free Windows 10 version.

Last year, I bought and SSD and cloned the Acer laptop hybrid hard drive (it has like 8 Gb SSD and the rest is a regular hard drive) and replaced it with the new SSD. Everything worked well. But the old Compaq was getting so slow to the point of being almost useless, so I installed the hybrid SSD+hard drive that I took from the Acer laptop in the Compaq minitower. It was too late when I realized that, because I changed hardware, Windows 10 was not getting updated anymore. Updates are downloaded, but cannot be installed.

Now I need to reinstall Windows 10 on the Compaq minitower to solve the problem (or at least that's what I think) so that the hydrid drive I took from the Acer laptop gets properly configured. My question is: will I need to buy a Windows 10 license? I heard there is a software that can recover the product keys, but I am not sure if this will work or what I should do to reinstall Windows 10 on my Compaq without problems, considering it was a free upgrade on the Acer drive. I know I will lose Office and most or all of my other apps.

Any help/advice will be greatly appreciate it; thank you very much in advance.

Regards,

Herbert

[Moved from: Windows / Windows 10 / Windows update, recovery, & backup]

Answer 1

Hi Herbert,

Microsoft Product Activation is designed to certify that software products are legitimately licensed. After a significant hardware change such as changing or replacing hard drive or motherboard, reactivating Windows 10 needs to be done. With regard to your query, we recommend that you check this article: Reactivating Windows 10 after a hardware change.The article will provide you with the steps that you need to perform in order to activate Windows 10 to your device after hardware changes. You will also know in the article why you can't reactivate Windows.

If in case you need additional assistance activating Windows on your device, we recommend that you contact our Answer Desk team.

Feel free to post back if you need further assistance.

Answer 2

Windows 10 Digital License

When you upgraded from a previous version of Windows or receive a new computer preinstalled with Windows 10, what happened is the hardware (your PC) will get a digital entitlement, where a unique signature of the computer will be stored on Microsoft Activation Servers. The Windows 7 or Windows 8 genuine license you were previously running will be exchanged for a diagnostics key.

Anytime you need to reinstall Windows 10 on that machine, just proceed to reinstall Windows 10. It will automatically reactivate. You will prompted to enter a product key a couple times through the installation, click I don't have a key and Do this later.

There is no need to know or get a new key, but if you have issues with Digital Licensing or the Activation Troubleshooter, you can utilize an existing Windows 7 or Windows 8/8.1 product key you already own to reactivate if necessary. or use the reset function in Windows 10.

Activate Your Windows 10 License via Microsoft Chat Support

Reinstall by Performing a Direct Clean Install

If Windows 10 was already installed and activated on your system, just proceed to perform a direct clean install as described in the following articles.

Step 1: How to download official Windows 10 ISO files 

Step 2: 

• How to: Perform a clean install of Windows 10

Answer 3

We'd like to know if you still need assistance. If yes, feel free to update this thread so we can further assist you. Regarding your query, you can create an ISO file for Windows 10 using a different computer. To do this, you can follow the steps provided in this article: Create an ISO file for Windows 10.

Let us know if you have other questions.

Answer 4

Windows 10 Digital License

When you upgraded from a previous version of Windows or receive a new computer preinstalled with Windows 10, what happened is the hardware (your PC) will get a digital entitlement, where a unique signature of the computer will be stored on Microsoft Activation Servers. The Windows 7 or Windows 8 genuine license you were previously running will be exchanged for a diagnostics key.

Anytime you need to reinstall Windows 10 on that machine, just proceed to reinstall Windows 10. It will automatically reactivate. You will prompted to enter a product key a couple times through the installation, click I don't have a key and Do this later.

There is no need to know or get a new key, but if you have issues with Digital Licensing or the Activation Troubleshooter, you can utilize an existing Windows 7 or Windows 8/8.1 product key you already own to reactivate if necessary. or use the reset function in Windows 10.

Activate Your Windows 10 License via Microsoft Chat Support

Reinstall by Performing a Direct Clean Install

If Windows 10 was already installed and activated on your system, just proceed to perform a direct clean install as described in the following articles.

Step 1: How to download official Windows 10 ISO files 

Step 2: 

• How to: Perform a clean install of Windows 10

Dear Andre,

Hello,

Thank you very much for your kind reply and the links. I will reinstall Windows  next Monday and see how it goes. I am going to use a dvd, so one more question: can I create the dvd with the Windows ISO files from any computer?

Best regards,

Herbert

Answer 5

Hi Herbert,

Microsoft Product Activation is designed to certify that software products are legitimately licensed. After a significant hardware change such as changing or replacing hard drive or motherboard, reactivating Windows 10 needs to be done. With regard to your query, we recommend that you check this article: Reactivating Windows 10 after a hardware change.The article will provide you with the steps that you need to perform in order to activate Windows 10 to your device after hardware changes. You will also know in the article why you can't reactivate Windows.

If in case you need additional assistance activating Windows on your device, we recommend that you contact our Answer Desk team.

Feel free to post back if you need further assistance.

Hello,

Thank you very much for your kind reply and the link. I will reinstall next Monday and see how it goes.

Best regards,

Herbert