move windows 10 from one machine to another? how does this work?

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mnewxcv

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I hear windows 10 ties itself to the hardware of a machine. How does this work if I want to transfer windows 10 to a different machine?

The scenario is I built a computer a month ago and installed windows 10 (education edition). However, I decided to switch platforms and build another machine. I want to put windows 10 on the new machine, and sell the old parts. Are there hoops I have to jump through, and can I sell my old motherboard without the buyer getting my windows 10 license automatically?
 
Where did you get the product key? If it was through your school I would ask their IT support. My understanding is that Education Edition works like Enterprise Edition. If that is true then you will be fine to install windows on your new hardware and sell your old parts. However, if it works like the OEM licensing then you are hosed. In that scenario your key will forever be tied to the motherboard you first activated it on, and yes the buyer of it would be able to activate Windows through through an entitlement on the Microsoft activation servers.
 
mnewxcv said:
I hear windows 10 ties itself to the hardware of a machine. How does this work if I want to transfer windows 10 to a different machine?

The scenario is I built a computer a month ago and installed windows 10 (education edition). However, I decided to switch platforms and build another machine. I want to put windows 10 on the new machine, and sell the old parts. Are there hoops I have to jump through, and can I sell my old motherboard without the buyer getting my windows 10 license automatically?
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Windows 10 activation is no different than any other edition other than not requiring a product key to re-install. Whether you have Vista, 7, 8 or 10, if you change motherboards the system will prompt you re-activate. Reactivating requires a legit license key.
 
Depending on whether the product is OEM or retail.

MS have been very lazy on enforcing this rule in the past and many people got away with reactivating an OEM install on a new motherboard - This is not how the terms of the licencing agreement works.

If the product is Retail or based around Enterprise it can be removed completely from the old machine and re-installed on a new machine/motherboard, if the product is OEM it dies with the machine/motherboard it is tied to and that's the end of it. As far as I can tell MS are now begining to actively enforce this rule and it is becoming harder to cheat and reactivate an OEM install of Windows.
 
Thanks. It ended up working fine on the new board, requiring phone activation.
 
I was going to chime in and say something about phone activation. I got my Win 10 Pro key from Kinguin for around $25 I think. I need to build a new HTPC and I'll probably grab another key from them.
 
I built a new machine over the weekend and the only items reused were the SSD and Case. For whatever reason I didn't put in a serial key and it reactivated Windows on its own without putting in the Win 7 Key. Not quite sure how or why but it was nice.
 
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