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Windows 11 product key transfer and fresh reinstall question (self.techsupport)

submitted 1 year ago by j4k3 to c/techsupport

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I have no plans to use W11 I just want to have the copy. I have a second hand laptop with a 1TB nvme drive, two m.2 slots and a spare 256GB nvme. I have what looks to be a fresh install with a local account. Is the product key all that is requited to make the transfer and reinstall work with a new drive?

How does this work if the product key was used before with an actual Microsoft account and then the machine is sold with a wiped system and local account? I haven't used old softy since W8 and not much even then.

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[–] Jaygriff 4 points 1 year ago

Microsoft uses a combination of hardware IDs (specific components on the system with unique serial numbers) and an actual license key to ensure a device is licensed. This is how sometimes you appear to do a fresh reinstall but the drive activates without a key. You can still pull a traditional license key and it can usually be used to activate 2 distinct devices, but the actual licensing terms are pretty ambiguous in that they say you can only do one device but actually allow 2 or more. Sometimes replacing too many components and activating windows again results in the activation check.