Do I require a new Activation Key

jaylob4 · Oct 23, 2024

spapakons said:
What version of Windows 7 did you have? If it was Ultimate it was higher than Professional and could be eligible for upgrade to Windows 10 Pro for Workstations or in your case Windows 10 Enterprise. This could explain how did you end with Enterprise. Or you accidentally upgraded from Windows 7 Professional to Windows 10 Enterprise which is higher than Pro and doable but then would not activate. However I don't think Microsoft would let you activate Enterprise with a Professional key, so most likely it was Ultimate.

Ah I'm pretty sure it was Ultimate I purchased, wish I could find the damn disk, if for my own satisfaction.

I know it was a legit purchase because of where I bought it from.

Winuser · Oct 23, 2024

I don't see why you should have any problems as long as your OS is activated. As I mentioned a few post back, the MS Store upgraded my one computer from Windows 11 home to Windows 11 Enterprise. Not wanting to have trouble later and lose the money I spent, I called MS. The tech gave me the generic Pro key and told me to use that. And if if anyone wants to know, Yes the Enterprise version was activated.

jaylob4 · Oct 23, 2024

Winuser said:
I don't see why you should have any problems as long as your OS is activated. As I mentioned a few post back, the MS Store upgraded my one computer from Windows 11 home to Windows 11 Enterprise. Not wanting to have trouble later and lose the money I spent, I called MS. The tech gave me the generic Pro key and told me to use that. And if if anyone wants to know, Yes the Enterprise version was activated.

Please see images, Jelly states Enterprise, my PC System states Win 10 pro??

z3r010 · Oct 23, 2024

Forget Jellybean, check the key with ShowKeyPlus

ShowKeyPlus - Free download and install on Windows | Microsoft Store

Find your Windows product key with ShowKeyPlus. Your product key depends on the type of Windows version you bought: • If you bought Windows from an authorized retailer, the product key will only show as the Installed key. This applies to OEM System Builder keys as well. • If you upgraded...

apps.microsoft.com

spapakons · Oct 23, 2024

Winuser said:
I don't see why you should have any problems as long as your OS is activated. As I mentioned a few post back, the MS Store upgraded my one computer from Windows 11 home to Windows 11 Enterprise. Not wanting to have trouble later and lose the money I spent, I called MS. The tech gave me the generic Pro key and told me to use that. And if if anyone wants to know, Yes the Enterprise version was activated.

Changing only the CPU or the RAM with the same motherboard would not require activation. But changing all three is essentially another computer, nothing remains the same apart from the disk,vso activation will be required. I would take a full backup before the upgrade, then do the upgrade and see what happens. I would then downgrade to Pro or Home and buy the respective key to activate.

jaylob4 · Oct 23, 2024

z3r010 said:
Forget Jellybean, check the key with ShowKeyPlus

ShowKeyPlus - Free download and install on Windows | Microsoft Store

Find your Windows product key with ShowKeyPlus. Your product key depends on the type of Windows version you bought: • If you bought Windows from an authorized retailer, the product key will only show as the Installed key. This applies to OEM System Builder keys as well. • If you upgraded...

apps.microsoft.com

Thanks, just used it.

jaylob4 · Oct 23, 2024

spapakons said:
Changing only the CPU or the RAM with the same motherboard would not require activation. But changing all three is essentially another computer, nothing remains the same apart from the disk,vso activation will be required. I would take a full backup before the upgrade, then do the upgrade and see what happens. I would then downgrade to Pro or Home and buy the respective key to activate.

Yes I agree, its a new/another PC for all purposes, so yes will take a system image then take it from there.

Just used the above app, see image and the two above, note the little gold asterisk next to installed key and then what it means, what does it mean? my Win OS operates ok I'm assuming it is activated after all this time.

spapakons · Oct 23, 2024

To make sure, Settings, System, Activation

jaylob4 · Oct 23, 2024

spapakons said:
To make sure, Settings, System, Activation

So Window 10 Pro is installed and activated, so should I need to reactivate after I rebuild, ( and and I won't know until I re-install my SSD with the existing OS ), but if I have to-- do I use the Win 10 key I have or the original Win 7 Ultimate key?

spapakons · Oct 23, 2024

What you need is the installed key. The original key is just shown as info.

Megahertz · Oct 23, 2024

As the current Win 10 Pro came from a Win 7 Ultimate free upgrade, I don't think it will be possible to transfer the activation to the new computer. There are some sites that sell Win 10 pro very cheap.

PS.: As you bought a new MB it should have a M.2 slot for NVMe SSD. I don't know what you're planing to transfer from the old computer but a NVMe SSD can be 10 times faster than a 2.5"SSD

jaylob4 · Oct 23, 2024

Megahertz said:
As the current Win 10 Pro came from a Win 7 Ultimate free upgrade, I don't think it will be possible to transfer the activation to the new computer. There are some sites that sell Win 10 pro very cheap.

PS.: As you bought a new MB it should have a M.2 slot for NVMe SSD. I don't know what you're planing to transfer from the old computer but a NVMe SSD can be 10 times faster than a 2.5"SSD

Thanks, Win 7 Ultimate wasn't a free upgrade I purchased a legit retail copy with its activation key, I upgraded from it to Win 10 Pro.

I don't know a lot about M.2 and NVMe accept it's fast/er but I was on a budget, I have my SSDs so to keep costs down I utilised as much as I could from my existing PC which admittedly isn't much, ( case/psu/fans/SSDs, ), my existing PC build is that old.

My PC was always intended to be a home/office affair and has served me well but was compelled to upgrade PC hardware if I wanted to upgrade to Win 11 and hopefully Win 12 if it arrives.

spapakons · Oct 23, 2024

For simple office use you won't notice any difference from SATA to NVMe. That said, if your old motherboard had SATA II and your new has SATA III you will see a difference anyway. One step at a time. First from SATA II to SATA III and later to NVMe.

Megahertz · Oct 23, 2024

jaylob4 said:
Thanks, Win 7 Ultimate wasn't a free upgrade I purchased a legit retail copy with its activation key, I upgraded from it to Win 10 Pro.

What I meant is that you upgrade from Win 7 Ultimate to Win 10 (free upgrade).

jaylob4 said:
I don't know a lot about M.2 and NVMe accept it's fast/er but I was on a budget, I have my SSDs so to keep costs down I utilised as much as I could from my existing PC which admittedly isn't much, ( case/psu/fans/SSDs, ), my existing PC build is that old.

My PC was always intended to be a home/office affair and has served me well but was compelled to upgrade PC hardware if I wanted to upgrade to Win 11 and hopefully Win 12 if it arrives.

What are the specs of the computer you're upgrading?
Is the Ryzen5 4600g + Asus Tuf B550-Plus WiFi ll?
As you intended to be a home/office computer, why don't you upgrade the current to Win 11.
My computer is 8 years old (Intel 6th gen) and my wife's is 13 years old (Intel 2nd gen) and both are running Win 11 very well.

jaylob4 · Oct 23, 2024

spapakons said:
For simple office use you won't notice any difference from SATA to NVMe. That said, if your old motherboard had SATA II and your new has SATA III you will see a difference anyway. One step at a time. First from SATA II to SATA III and later to NVMe.

The existing board is an Asus M3A78-EM, said it was old with a5050e Athlon CPU.

I just checked the specs on line and it has 5 x SATA 3 slots, two of which are used by both my SSDs.

As I said in an earlier post I was astounded to find it only had 4gb of DDR 3 ram on board for all those years and the PC ran ok for me and did what I wanted.

My new MB will have Ryzen 4600g cpu and 16gb of DDR 4, anything purchased will be faster then my existing setup but it's a home/office PC, speed is not my uppermost requirement, reliable components are.

jaylob4 · Oct 23, 2024

Megahertz said:
What I meant is that you upgrade from Win 7 Ultimate to Win 10 (free upgrade).

What are the specs of the computer you're upgrading?
Is the Ryzen5 4600g + Asus Tuf B550-Plus WiFi ll?
As you intended to be a home/office computer, why don't you upgrade the current to Win 11.
My computer is 8 years old (Intel 6th gen) and my wife's is 13 years old (Intel 2nd gen) and both are running Win 11 very well.

Hieroglyphs, it's that old.

Yes it is, I have everything but the Motherboard which will arrive tomorrow.

I will be upgrading to Win 11 soon hence the rebuild.

Winuser · Oct 23, 2024

spapakons said:
Changing only the CPU or the RAM with the same motherboard would not require activation. But changing all three is essentially another computer,

When it comes to the OS being moved to a new computer, Windows is way more forgiving then it use too be. I have swapped drives from my old computers to my new computers and I kept everything including the activation.

spapakons said:
I would take a full backup before the upgrade, then do the upgrade and see what happens.

Always a good idea to make backups before making any major changes.

spapakons said:
I would then downgrade to Pro or Home and buy the respective key to activate.

I would make the backup then try using the generic key to see if it will switch to an activated Pro build before doing anything else. If it doesn't work then a new Pro key will be needed.

Winuser · Oct 23, 2024

jaylob4 said:
Just used the above app, see image and the two above, note the little gold asterisk next to installed key and then what it means, what does it mean? my Win OS operates ok I'm assuming it is activated after all this time.

~~From the way I'm reading it is that your OS is not activated and you do need a legit Pro key to activate it.~~
It looks to me like your two screen shots are contradicting each other.

Bree · Oct 23, 2024

jaylob4 said:
Just used the above app, see image and the two above, note the little gold asterisk next to installed key and then what it means, what does it mean? my Win OS operates ok I'm assuming it is activated after all this time.

You didn't need to mask the key with the asterisk, it's the generic Pro key VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T. All my Win10 Pro and Win11 Pro machines have that one. Generic keys cannot activate Windows on their own, your PC will only activate if it has an existing digital licence linked to its hardware ID and stored on the Microsoft activation servers.

Your screenshot in post #29 shows that your PC is activated with a digital licence. Changing the motherboard will change the hardware ID and loose that activation. To transfer you digital licence from the old machine to the new build, first switch to signing in with your Microsoft account on the old machine (if you do not already do so). If you are lucky, when you first sign in with your MS account on the new build it may activate. If not, run the Activation Troubleshooter, click on 'I recently changed hardware on this device', then it will ask you to sign into your MS account and tell it which of the PCs listed in your account was the one with the old hardware.

can-reactivate-windows-servers-available-png.83912

My PC is activated with my ms account, but it has disappeared from the list on line management of devices - post #20

jaylob4 · Oct 23, 2024

Bree said:
You didn't need to mask the key with the asterisk, it's the generic Pro key VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T. All my Win10 Pro and Win11 Pro machines have that one. Generic keys cannot activate Windows on their own, your PC will only activate if it has an existing digital licence linked to its hardware ID and stored on the Microsoft activation servers.

Your screenshot in post #29 shows that your PC is activated with a digital licence. Changing the motherboard will change the hardware ID and loose that activation. To transfer you digital licence from the old machine to the new build, first switch to signing in with your Microsoft account on the old machine (if you do not already do so). If you are lucky, when you first sign in with your MS account on the new build it may activate. If not, run the Activation Troubleshooter, click on 'I recently changed hardware on this device', then it will ask you to sign into your MS account and tell it which of the PCs listed in your account was the one with the old hardware.

I was being unnecessarily cautious then.

Can I check what will be my old hardware is listed in my MS account?

Thanks for the advise.

Do I require a new Activation Key

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