Upgrade and Windows

EB_Prophet · 1 Feb 2019 at 19:14

Morning,

So ordered a nice Ryzen 2600, B450 Tomahawk and RAM. Currently running an i5-3570K. How is windows at dealing with hardware upgrades nowadays? As in, If i just switch everything over and turn it on, will it fix any problems itself? Will I need a boot CD/USB to fix issues? Will I *really* need to do a full reinstall? I understand the windows activation code is already registered to my Microsoft account so there shouldn't be any problems there as far as I can tell?

Thanks for any info.

Kautya · 1 Feb 2019 at 22:07

Are you talking about windows 10 ? If so the retail version allows hardware to be switched but oem version doesnt. OEM version seems to tie it on the motherboard that you initially install it on. When I switched mine, didnt have to do anything. Just booted up and started driver installations etc. to update the relevant drivers. You may need to re-activate the windows version through Update and security.

EB_Prophet · 3 Feb 2019 at 08:11

Kautya said:
Are you talking about windows 10 ? If so the retail version allows hardware to be switched but oem version doesnt. OEM version seems to tie it on the motherboard that you initially install it on. When I switched mine, didnt have to do anything. Just booted up and started driver installations etc. to update the relevant drivers. You may need to re-activate the windows version through Update and security.

Windows 10 pro and in the activation bit it says it's activated with a digital licence linked to my Microsoft account. I assume that meant I could change hardware without issue. I was more concerned with whether it would be able to recover on it's own by going from Intel to AMD or whether I'd need to reinstall?

pastymuncher · 3 Feb 2019 at 13:57

When I upgraded a couple of months ago I did a fresh install of Windows 10 and even though I had a digital licence tied to my Microsoft account and deactivated the old pc tied to it Windows wouldn't reactivate. Many say that you can just go through the helpline to reactivate but I tried the enter new licence key instead. I got Windows 10 through the free upgrade offer they ran a couple of years ago and upgraded from Windows 7. I entered my Windows 7 key and Windows 10 activated so all was good.

Going from Intel to AMD I would do a fresh install of Windows. I did it going from Intel Z87 platform to Z390 platform. Yes Windows is good at installing new drivers etc but you are going to have a lot of junk on the pc that isn't needed anymore. I would always do a Fresh Install when changing platforms.

ilc72 · 4 Feb 2019 at 15:53

pastymuncher said:
When I upgraded a couple of months ago I did a fresh install of Windows 10 and even though I had a digital licence tied to my Microsoft account and deactivated the old pc tied to it Windows wouldn't reactivate. Many say that you can just go through the helpline to reactivate but I tried the enter new licence key instead. I got Windows 10 through the free upgrade offer they ran a couple of years ago and upgraded from Windows 7. I entered my Windows 7 key and Windows 10 activated so all was good.

Going from Intel to AMD I would do a fresh install of Windows. I did it going from Intel Z87 platform to Z390 platform. Yes Windows is good at installing new drivers etc but you are going to have a lot of junk on the pc that isn't needed anymore. I would always do a Fresh Install when changing platforms.

Done properly as @pastymuncher says it’s easy to transfer a digital licence as long as you follow the proper process.