Installed Win 10 When It Was Free But Will I Need To Buy It

[AngelfireUk83]

Back when Windows 10 was given out for free as an upgrade I had mostly the same PC back then when I installed it and activated it the only change I've done since then is upgrade the RAM from 8GB to 16GB and a minor upgrade for GPU on a cheap from a 7850 2GB to a 7950 3GB, I remember back in the days of XP that activation's where tide to the hardware ID if your system like so many digits off each hardware's digital ID and submitted to Microsoft to (try and stop) piracy.

Does Win 10 have the same system ????

I think it's about time I bit the 10 bullet and tried it myself and see what it does for the likes of games from old to new I will be building a new rig next year hopefully a Ryzen 3 but saving the storage and GPU (temp) and PSU etc to cut costs just a CPU/BOARD/RAM upgrade.

 

[Alaric]

Windows 10 is "tied" to the motherboard, but MS has been pretty slack on enforcement in a lot of ways. You could give this a try:

https://www.majorgeeks.com/content/...r_windows_10_license_to_another_computer.html

 

[trents]

I'm thinking it will activate without a problem. If not, there are outlets for pretty inexpensive OEM keys from reliable internet software vendors like kinguin.net and Urcdkey.

 

[noxqzs]

I do fresh installs of Win10 with my old OEM win7 keys and they always install fine. I just did one last month. The keys definitely get tied to the mobo, because I checked on separate installs.