removing win10 licence

bushmins · 4 Oct 2017 at 01:39

If I were to sell a pc that I had installed a retail version win10 on, but removed the hard drive. If the next person installed win10 onto a new hdd using an ISO would it use my license? Do I have to somehow unlink my motherboard?

pastymuncher · 4 Oct 2017 at 10:13

Not sure about that now as it's tied to the motherboard. I suppose you could convert it to a digital licence linked to a Microsoft account which should only be accessable for yourself but I am not quite sure how it works. I believe you have to deregister the device to be able to use it again on a new pc. I am sure someone more knowledgeable about these things will come along.

Steveocee · 4 Oct 2017 at 12:51

The OEM versions of previous Windows that upgraded tended to tie themselves to the motherboard. If you have a retail copy then you can reuse your key with no issues. The person who got your old PC would need their own key to activate Windows.

bushmins · 4 Oct 2017 at 15:02

Steveocee said:
The OEM versions of previous Windows that upgraded tended to tie themselves to the motherboard. If you have a retail copy then you can reuse your key with no issues. The person who got your old PC would need their own key to activate Windows.

I originally had a win7 retail disk which i upgraded to win10. I use a win10 iso on a stick to install win10 now. It never asks for a code. So it seems that someone else could then install the win10 that is linked to the motherboard without a code.

wakadoo · 4 Oct 2017 at 15:04

go to the microsoft accounts page and remove the pc..

Steveocee · 4 Oct 2017 at 15:11

bushmins said:
I originally had a win7 retail disk which i upgraded to win10. I use a win10 iso on a stick to install win10 now. It never asks for a code. So it seems that someone else could then install the win10 that is linked to the motherboard without a code.

I'm only going from my previous experience about 4 weeks ago.
I had Win8 retail installed, upgraded to 10. I had to go in and de-activate my windows (command line prompt)
Re-installed, then when windows was installing I could swear it asked for a key, I put my Win8 key in and it didn't activate until it got online.

Either way if it was originally retail and was upgraded it should have tied itself to your online account if you were using one.

I'm fairly confident someone won't be able to use your motherboard and it self activate.

bremen1874 · 4 Oct 2017 at 22:42

If there's any doubt slap a spare drive into it and try installing Windows.