If you have an old Windows 10 desktop or laptop
computer activated with an official Microsoft license key, you may not want to
buy another license key after moving to a new computer, as Windows 10 licenses
are very expensive.
With a starting price of $ 100 and up to $ 200, the
official Microsoft serial costs about the same as a 1 TB storage unit, 16 GB of
RAM, or even a new motherboard! Also, you should never consider buying cheap
Windows 10 activation keys from shady websites.
So paying a huge amount of money for another license
when you want to move from your old computer to the new one is not a great
option. But fortunately, it is possible to deactivate the computer that you no
longer intend to use, and then transfer that license to a new computer,
wouldn't that be convenient, dear reader?
Well, in this simple article, we will show you the
steps that must be followed to achieve this and activate your new computer by
licensing the old computer easily as long as both are running Windows 10.
Using the slmgr command in Windows, it is possible to
deactivate an old computer and then activate a new one. However, you will need
to consider some limitations before proceeding with it.
One is that this method will not work with OEM license
keys, which are keys that come with a store-bought computer, such as a laptop
with Windows 10 pre-installed. Manufacturers combine these switches with the
hardware they were born with, so they can't be ported to new hardware.
Although the slmgr command can deactivate an
activation key that you purchased separately, either from Microsoft or through
trusted online stores, this key will only activate the system you purchased it
for.
In other words, if the serial is designed to activate
Windows 10 Pro version, it cannot activate Windows 10 Home version, but the Pro
version must be installed on the new device.
And if your activation key is for Windows 7 or 8, you
can still use it to activate Windows 10, but only through the standard
activation process and not through the slmgr command. After clarifying these
things, let's start reviewing the steps...
First: Deactivate the old computer
Before you start deactivating Windows on your old
computer, make sure to save your Windows 10 activation key somewhere. If you
have a product cover or digital receipt, you can get it there.
Otherwise, there are some ways you can get your
activation key back including using the Produkey tool from Nirsoft. After
running the tool on your device, the activation key will appear under the
"Product Key" column.
Now to deactivate the old computer, you will need to
open a command prompt in administration or administrator mode. To do this, open
the Start menu and type "cmd" in the search box.
Then click on the "Run as administrator"
option on the right as shown in the image above. Alternatively, press Win + X
together on the keyboard and choose Command Prompt (Admin) to open a Command
Prompt window.
In the command prompt that appears, run the following
command and restart your computer:
slmgr.vbs /upk
But if you plan to sell or give away the device, you
may want to erase the key completely from the registry as well. It is not very
necessary to deactivate, but it is better to protect the license key. To do
this, run the following command:
slmgr.vbs /cpky
If the command is executed successfully, and you see
an "Uninstalled product key successfully" message, then you have
deactivated Windows 10 on your old computer.
You can still use Windows, but it won't be treated as
a genuine copy of Windows, and some features — like desktop customization
options — won't work.
Second: Activate the new computer
After you deactivated Windows 10 on your old computer,
it's time to activate your new computer with the same activation key. You can
also do this with the slmgr command, so open a command prompt as administrator
and run the following command, replacing XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX with
your activation key:
slmgr.vbs /ipk XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX
If the command is executed successfully, an
"Installed product key successfully" message should appear stating
that Windows has been activated. However, if you try to use an activation key
that hasn't been removed from your old computer yet, it may be delayed and you'll
end up with a message that activation failed. So be sure to apply the steps in
the previous paragraph to completely remove the activation from the old device,
then try again.
Also, keep in mind that this will only work if the
activation key matches the operating system you are using. If you have a
Windows 10 Pro key, but Windows 10 Home is installed on your new computer, you
will encounter an error and the device will not activate. This problem will
also appear if you try to use an activation key for an older version, such as
Windows 7 or 8, where you will receive an Invalid Key error.
The best thing that you can do in these cases is to
open the Settings app through the Start menu, then go to the Update &
Security section, then click on Activation from the left side menu, then click
on the Change product key option and manually enter the activation key in the
window that appears.
Note that if you use a Pro activation key to activate
the Home edition of Windows 10, this method will automatically upgrade the
system to the Pro version to match the activation key you entered.
Thus, Windows 10 activation has been transferred from the old computer to the new one without the need to purchase a new license key at a cost of $100 (at least) from Microsoft.