Whenever you want to buy a new PC, then Windows 10 comes with a pre-installed activated operating system. But if you want to build a new PC by yourself then it requires a new product license. Purchasing the license key can cost up to a hundred dollars, or it also depends on the edition which you want to purchase. In fact, if you have an old PC, then easily you can transfer its license to another PC which newly you built that.
Windows 10 has lots of ways for the activation, but using its genuine product key is better and keep your Windows operating system more safety. On the other hand, you may be able to transfer the Windows 10 product key to another computer or PC. It a good option that when you are building a new PC for your work, indeed it gives you the ability to transfer its license key to another computer, while you selling your old computer.
Whatever the reason is, if you are buying a new PC or building a new PC, or if you have and old activated Windows PC. But in a very common way, you can transfer its product key under the Microsoft rules.
Windows 10 Product Key Determination
Microsoft offers the users different versions of the Windows 10 operating system with different licenses and rules. They put rules for the daily use of Windows, if you are a daily user then you can obtain the license key through the retail equipment OEM channel. Remember that if you have purchased the retail copy of the Windows 10 operating system, then Microsoft will allow you to transfer its product key to another computer. But if you have upgraded from Windows 7,8,8.1 directly to Windows 10, then you won’t be able to transfer its license key.
Usually, the Windows license key is much expensive it starts from $100 to $200, the official product from Microsoft costs up to the price of 1 TB SSD drive in the market. I think its not a good idea to buy the product key with that much expensive price. It’s a better idea to transfer your old PC license key to the new one. The best idea is to deactivate the old PC that is not in use now and transfer its license key to a new computer.
There are some commands the make the work straightforward, don’t forget using the commands has some limitations. The commands won’t work for OEM keys, the license keys which come with a computer that you purchase from the store.
Transfer Your Windows 10 License to Another Computer
To get started the process, be sure that you have placed of saved the Windows product key somewhere. Because it may cause you to lose your product key. So before, getting the product key of Windows check the guide on verifying the retail and OEM version.
To do that head over to Windows 10 start menu type cmd, once appear press enter to open.
When the command prompt opened, type the below commands and press enter. After that, a dialog box will pop-up that tells you the details about the Retail and OEM version of Windows.
slmgr -dli
Note: You can not transfer the OEM license, you can only transfer the Retail license to another computer.
The next thing you need to do is to ensure you have the 25-character license key. If you have purchased the license key then you might still have it in your email. Or there is another third-party application called “Free PC Audit”. This tool is having the advanced feature that can ensure or find the product license of your Windows is some clicks.
To get the tool open up your browser, on the search bar type “Free PC Audit” and press enter. And download the latest version of it, once the file downloaded double-click to open. Wait for a few moments until it should show you the details of your product license key.
Once you find out the product license key, select all and open notepad and save there.
Deactivate Windows Product Key
Before transferring the product key to another computer, you need to deactivate its product key on the old computer that you won’t use it anymore. Don’t forget that if you don’t deactivate the license then you won’t be able to transfer it to a new computer, or to use the same product key on the new computer. Using the same product key on two operating systems, Microsoft will not give this chance to you.
To do this, navigate to the Windows start menu type cmd, then right-click on that and “Run As Administrator”.
When the command prompt opened, in the command line type the below commands and press enter to uninstall the product key.
slmgr.vbs /upk
Next, you need to remove the product key from the registry, for that copy and paste the below commands, and press enter. After pressing the enter key be sure that you successfully cleared the registry.
slmgr.vbs /cpky
To register the next Windows operating system using the old product key, navigate to the Windows start menu click on the Settings Gear icon. When the setting window opened click on “Activate Windows”, and enter the product key.