With a new pc, can I launch and get 11 activated before replacing the drive?

I'll be getting a new PC and swapping out the RAM and SSD for larger capacity ones. Can I boot it first to check out some things (which will probably activate it) and then when I am satisfied swap out the components? Or will I have an issue with activation once I put the new drive in with a clean install of 11 which I download from Microsoft? Actually, I can try to get in without an Internet connection if it will let me, and then only try to activate it once I get the new drive in.

rick99 said:

will I have an issue with activation once I put the new drive in....

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Once a PC has been activated for Windows 10/11 it has a digital licence stored on the MS activation servers and linked to the hardware ID of the PC.

Microsoft have clearly stated that the hard drive plays no part at all in this hardware ID so you can swap it out as much as you like. The only thing that matters is that any new clean install of 10 or 11 is the same edition as the digital licence, Home or Pro. A digital licence will activate 10 or 11, it doesn't matter which one got your PC the digital licence.

Bree said:

Once a PC has been activated for Windows 10/11 it has a digital licence stored on the MS activation servers and linked to the hardware ID of the PC.

Microsoft have clearly stated that the hard drive plays no part at all in this hardware ID so you can swap it out as much as you like. The only thing that matters is that any new clean install of 10 or 11 is the same edition as the digital licence, Home or Pro. A digital licence will activate 10 or 11, it doesn't matter which one got your PC the digital licence.

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Yea, I'll be using the same edition of 11. Thanks for the info.

I think that a OEM computer needs to be activated first to have the digital license stored on the MS activation servers. Once activated and when you're satisfied, swap out the components and do a clean install.

Yea, my plan is to set it up with the Lenovo image first... as a local account and make sure it is activated. Thanks.

On a factory made computer with Windows 11 (or Windows 10) pre-installed, the product key for Windows 10 or 11 is stored in firmware, so it would not matter what order you did things in. You could open the box, open the computer, put a blank SSD in, start the computer up from a vanilla Windows 10/11 USB flash drive for the very first time, clean install Windows, and it would still activate the first time using the product key stored in UEFI firmware. You would not even be asked for a product or which edition of Windows 10/11 you wanted to install.

When I bought my laptop, some time ago which had W10 on it, I ran it for a few weeks with its original 1Tb HDD, and then removed the drive and replaced it with a 500Gb Samsung SSD. With the SSD in, I did a clean install of W10 from a DVD and activated it sucessfully. This was for two reasons, the SSD would be faster and was plenty big enough for my usage and also to get rid of the bloatware that laptops normally come with. For the first year, I made backups regularly on an external drive with no problems, now the original HDD is in a case and used for storage. Although the laptop uses DDR4, the processor is only 6th generation Intel, so I haven't upgraded to W11.

tinmar49 said:

Although the laptop uses DDR4, the processor is only 6th generation Intel, so I haven't upgraded to W11.

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You do know that there are workarounds to install on anything, however inappropriate? If it can run 64 bit Windows 10 it will run Windows 11, my System Two in 'My Computers' below only has a 1st gen i5.

In the case of my laptop, it is not important enough to me to consider upgrading to W11 at present, that might change when W10 looses backup. I have three desktop machines with W11 and only one,the first on my list gets regular use. Having a Microsoft account costs nothing and can be useful when changing hardware, I even changed the motherboard on this one with Microsoft's blessing.

Duh! Why reinstall Windows? Set up the new PC and then when it's the way you want it, just CLONE the old drive to a new one.
Easy peasy!

I've done hundreds of clones, where a customer wanted to upgrade their HD to a larger one. With the right CLONING program and a PC that lets you connect two drives at once (any tech should have one) it's easy peazy!
The only thing I would do after that, is partition the new drive, so you have space for "Stuff" that you don't need to have on your Boot Partition.
I never set up a drive without a "Storage" partition.
Just a little Cloning!

I do all my backups and cloning with GHOST, a little program I picked up back in 1997. It still works even for Win-11, Linux, or Server.
I run it from a DOS boot disk, FD, or even an SD Memory Card.

KISS....(Keep It Simple Sam!)

TM