Windows 10 Hardware Changes Idiocy

Windows 10 license is registered to your hardware, not you. Microsoft doesn't care if you bought the license or upgraded the license for yourself, the license is for your hardware. The license belongs to your hardware, not you, it's mind blowing how stupid this is.

Windows 10 official solution if you make hardware changes you have to revert to Windows 8.1 and then upgrade to Windows 10 AGAIN and then do a clean install after if you want a clean install.

Their techs won't activate your Windows 10 for you. Have fun upgrading your machines with Windows 10 and reverting to Windows 8.1 and then upgrading to Windows 10 again.

 

Bizarre! or learn from others who did try it and saw what a pile of garbage it was, while it does bring in *some* improvements, the quirks and annoyances surpass those by a big mile. Stay on Windows 7 or 8 and be done with it, make sure to hide the following updates if you see them to not be bothered to upgrade:

KB3035583
KB2952664
KB3021917
KB2505438
KB2670838
KB2976978

 

I upgraded to Win 10 Pro from Win 7 Pro. Then I bought a new SSD and updated BIOS. Then I performed a fresh installation of Windows 10 Pro. Windows installed and activated itself without me typing in the product key, with no issues at all. I remember that when I had Win 7 Pro and I had updated BIOS of my laptop, I had to call Microsoft to reactivate Windows. Definitely some improvement here. My $0.02.

 

OK, now try updating BIOS, swapping out some hardware, boot into Windows 10 and see how much you like it when it forces you back to Windows 7 and then to upgrade to Windows 10 again.

 

I wouldn't have an issue if it just attached itself to the main board but the entirety of the system? Again attack the enthusiast.

 

The process was already painful enough in that minor hardware changes would trigger a re-activation. Having to install 3 times (initial, upgrade, clean) to get a clean install is crazy. Yet another one of the downsides to a "free" upgrade is that they feel justified in making some cases very painful.

 

So presumably, after July 2016, you cannot make any hardware changes on a W10 upgraded system. That would be so stupid.

 

That's what I thought as well.

 

Right now we only have the upgrade path release. With a new install DVD maybe then you just have to reinstall?

 

What we are missing, it MSFTs future is in a subscription service. So if you are paying your subscription you will be able to upgrade hardware. If you are not you will be SOL.

 

Purely speculation...

 

I had a similar issue, Win7 -> Win10 free. Then I swapped out most of my hardware... cpu, mb, memory, psu. I lost activation with windows 10 the following day with some random error Called support etc they wouldn't allow me to activate they provided me two solutions. And I believe they then blocked my (auto generated win10 from free upgrade) key so after that I received the 0xC004C003 error in the activation screen.


#1 Buy windows 10
My Answer: No it was suppose to be free!


#2 Reinstall your computer with windows 7 and then upgrade to windows 10 and migrate all your programs and data
My Answer: No! That would take forever! Too much work, instead please allow my windows 10 to activate with what it has (they said no etc, they wouldn't give me a "free" key)


So after some searching didn't find a solution but I found the method of doing a clean install with windows 10 using the GenuineTicket.xml and decided to merge that idea with a clean install of windows 7 on a different hard drive.... IT WORKED!


[My Solution- Does not involve reinstalling your primary system]
1. Disconnect all your hard drives
2. Connect an old hard drive you no longer need the data on
3. Install previous version of windows (in my case it was Win7 Ultimate x64 Upgrade)
MAKE SURE YOU DO THIS USING YOUR NEW HARDWARE!

• Because I had the upgrade media, during the installation I unchecked the "activate when online" checkbox (whatever it was called) and did NOT enter a product key, because the upgrade key wouldn't work anyway
• Then after installation completed....
  • I opened up "regedit.exe" navigated to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Setup/OOBE/
  • Changed the MediaBootInstall value from 1 to 0
  • Opened a command prompt (cmd.exe) with "Run as administrator"
  • Ran the command "slmgr /rearm"
  • Reboot!
  • After reboot I had to install my network drivers so I could activate windows...

4. Activate previous version of windows

• I went into the Windows activation program (WinKey, typed activation) entered my product key and then online activation worked fine. If it doesn't call them etc get it activated!

5. Now that the previous windows version was activated I needed to generate the GenuineTicket.xml that Windows 10 uses to accept the previous windows Upgrade. Here are the steps...

• Insert your Windows 10 Installation media (Mine was Win10Pro 64bit on a USB drive)
• I navigated to :\sources\ (you may need to navigate to :\sources\64 or 32 depending on your installation media)
• I copied :\sources"gatherosstate.exe" to my desktop, and ran it with "Run as administrator" I don't think you need to as admin but I did it anyway.
• "gatherosstate.exe" generates a file in the same directory (desktop) called GenuineTicket.xml automatically. If this file does not appear almost instantly your windows version may not be activated still or reboot or Sorry I dunno.
• Copy the GenuineTicket.xml to a usb drive (I just made a folder on my win 10 install media and saved it there)

6. Shut down your computer, disconnect your temporary hard drive, reconnect your primary hard drives
7. Start up windows 10 (not install media just what you've been using since activation failed)
8. Copy your GenuineTicket.xml to this existing folder C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\ClipSVC\GenuineTicket
9. Reboot!
10. Muhahahahaha hah haha ah ahah ah ahah ha a Windows 10 Pro says its activated. I did not have to reinstall my primary system or apps etc
Hope this works for anyone else viewing this!

 

so many moves to activate win 10 spyware.
Dont really see any improvements from wi 8

as they said early, they will give free licenses only for current hardware, so if you switch config, you must buy new one.
(probably retail boxes not affected )