or doesn’t it really matter ?

Our pc in the lounge committed slightly fiery suicide the other day. I’ve ordered a new motherboard & processor and will happily rebuild it.

… but how do I get W10 back onto it without having a code (was originally an upgrade from w7) ? I’ve heard that you can use software to get if off the machine before changing over but that ship has flown before the door was bolted.

Will I die ?

You can retrieve it from the Registry on your hard drive. Plug the hard drive from the dead pc into a live one and run something like ProduKey to get it.

Alternatively, is there a sticker on the base of your old pc? 🙂

Do you have the old W7 code? Use that.

If you have the old HDD, you should be able to boot from that. It will detect a new motherboard and CPU, so it might require reactivation. Once it’s activated, you can replace the old HDD and install a fresh copy of Win10 without needing a serial number. IF you can’t boot from the old HDD, you will need your Win7 serial number. If you don’t have that, you will need to buy a licence.

Thanks all – doubt I still have the W7 disc but maybe. If I did, would I have to install w7 first and then upgrade or just use the w7 code for w10 ?

Otherwise will try the other options

You can install W10 fresh (free to download from MS) and should be able to activate with your W7 key.

But as above you may not need to reinstall if your old hard drive still works? Try booting from it when you have the new parts, will probably just need to activate Windows again.

just use the w7 code for w10

This

Isn’t the W10 code tied to the motherboard? As far as I’m aware you won’t be able to reuse on a new motherboard, you need a new key. eBay a d Amazon sell new activation keys for a few quid.

Yeah mine wouldn’t let me reactivate on a different MB when I changed mine. Given licence keys are £5 on eBay I didn’t mess about for too long I admit!

Do you log in to the PC with a Microsoft account? If so, the licence will probably be tied to that. If you log in with the same account (indeed, if you’re using the same HDD) then if it moans about activation you can go into Activation / Troubleshooting and there’s an option there to say that you’ve changed hardware. IIRC you’ve to deregister the old board there.

There’s almost certainly no reason to be fannying about with codes from ebay. Whatever happens there will be some official way to do it, even if it means ringing MS.

If you get nowhere with it, just buy one of the very very cheap Win10 licences from Ebay. I’ve bought a few, and they come in at about £2.

Sounds iffy- is legit. There was a court case a few years back that established that, in Europe, there’s a right to resell these, and hence the very low price.

MS don’t wield publicise this, for obvious reasons.

Can you resell software licenses? The latest legal position in 2016

Isn’t the W10 code tied to the motherboard?

I put the SSD from a ten year old laptop (that came with Vista was activated with a code on a sticker then upgraded to W7 then re-installed with W10) into a desktop, and it just worked. I did use the same Microsoft account though so I think Cougar’s right, as usual.