Old Win 10 PC died, can't find Licence Key

Jaap74

Jaap74

Jaap74

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Hi,

Had my almost 10 year old desktop killed by a power surge, PSU and motherboard were fried. I've tried finding the licence key on the still working C: but no luck.

Having a new desktop built and Win 11 is being installed (not buying a licence). If I log into my Microsoft account on this new machine will it automatically licence itself?

When I log into my Microsoft account it doesn't show that I ever purchased Win 10.

Thanks
 
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I transferred my C drive from my old 6700k build to my current machine (Windows 10) and then activated through the Microsoft account (MS support article here https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb...f04c-145b-6ead-fb3fc72b6665#ID0EBD=Windows_10).

Once that is done (assuming all goes well) you can upgrade to W11. If you want a fresh install to W11 you will still need to upgrade from W10 to W11 first to migrate the key is my understanding.

Edit: if you can safely do so, I would recommend backing up the C drive just in case; especially given the failure of the previous PC and having a backup is always a good idea.
 
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Jaap74 said:
Was an OEM licence so couldn't reuse it unfortunately.....
Click to expand...
I think you can call Microsoft and reactivate it on your new PC, unless Microsoft have gotten rid of that service. As long as the OEM key remains on one PC, Microsoft were quite liberal if you gave them the code over the phone. Hopefully, the service exists still. I must have reused my OEM key quite a few times, with Microsoft permission. I told them my motherboard had died and was forced to reinstall Windows.
 
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