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I just went through this with a new Dell XPS for my dad. I performed a wipe/reinstall (with media created directly from a Microsoft download) and Windows 10 ne
by lashkari 11y ago
I just went through this with a new Dell XPS for my dad.
I performed a wipe/reinstall (with media created directly from a Microsoft download) and Windows 10 never asked me for a key after reinstalling it, and it reports as being activated.
Seems like they've moved away from requiring an OEM key in addition to the SLIC BIOS signature.
- sfilipov 11y agoThey went a step further. Once a Windows 10 machine is activated, a "hash" of its hardware is taken and associated with the product key. When you reinstall Windows 10, the activation service matches your hardware information with the product key. You need to enter a product key only the first time you install Windows 10 on a particular machine.
- Already__Taken 11y agoWhen I was building machines and asked about the OEM licence, this hardware hash is related to the motherboard. MS consider a new motherboard a new PC, everything else you should get away with changing.