Heya folks, my first post in this particular section. I'm helping a friend build a PC and his current has windows 10 on it, it was the free one that happened a while back. The build in question has a nice Sammy M.2 in it for the main drive and I'm curiois whether we can save him 90 quid and get his current system on the new M.2 or better yet fresh install and use current key. Is this possible and if so any links on the process? Thank in advance
Reload it. It will save a lot of hassle. It will likely just activate after the reload if you're only swapping one major component. If not, find his old key and activate using that.
Not swapping one component, all of them, and as its the free version will it have a key he can access?
No, that isn't how Windows 10 activation works (unless you purchased a key and even then you don't 100% need to keep hold of it). Windows 10 essentially creates a unique key based on your current hardware and registers it with Microsoft as activated. Change more than 3 components (as you're doing) and you'll need to reactivate; the easiest way is to simply re-enter his old Windows7/8 key. Otherwise, it's purchase a new key time.
I've clarifies some things with him and he upgraded from windows 7 so will likely have the activation key somewhere, so just need to find that and jobs a goodun. Thank you very much for the info kind sir
