Ever since Microsoft introduced Product Activation, the feature has been known to cause problems, deactivate PCs, and generally behave obnoxiously. Reactivating a PC that suddenly thinks your copy of Windows isn’t genuine (usually due to a hardware upgrade) ranges from a few clicks of the Activation Manager (best case) to a phone call to Microsoft. Now, the company wants to streamline this process and associate Windows activation codes with specific systems.
Here’s how PC World describes the new capability:
Using the Activation Troubleshooter, users can associate a digital Windows 10 license with their Microsoft account. After that, they can change out hardware on their PC and re-activate Windows with the license that they associated with their account.
There’s still a limit to how many times people can reactivate per account, but Microsoft hasn’t said what that is yet. One advantage of the account method is that Microsoft will know which precise version of Windows you purchased and can guide you to restoring it. For the majority of users this won’t matter, but if you have a Pro license and accidentally install Home, you can reactivate your Pro license without any trouble.
How well customers receive this capability will depend a great deal on whether or not Microsoft uses the information as an additional telemetry point and how well it communicates that decision. The company’s track record on both topics is less than great — even when its telemetry gathering isn’t designed to gather personal information, the company hasn’t done a great job of communicating its design (or in giving users full control over it).
The Windows 10 account creation screen
The other factor not explained here is how the new feature will interact with customers who buy various versions of the operating system. If you upgrade from a retail version of Windows 7 or 8.1 to a free version of Windows 10, you lose the retail license you purchased and are now tied to a single Windows 10 installation.
The flip side to this, however, is that associating a Windows license with a Microsoft account could make it easier to restore an OEM system after a drive failure. Most OEMs now only ship recovery information on a separate drive partition or by embedding the key in UEFI. Storing it in an MS account could provide a second type of backup in the event of UEFI corruption or if the backup partition fails.
One final point: For most of the past 15 years, Microsoft has allowed users to run unactivated Windows with little more than occasionally annoying pop-ups reminding you to activate. This appears to still be the case with the Windows Anniversary Update, whether this new feature is used or not.
Now read: Windows 10: The best hidden features, tips, and tricks
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Hi,
I'd just like to check a couple of things:
1. Second Hand Windows 8
I am considering buying a second hand laptop on eBay, that comes with a preinstalled copy of windows 8 (it's a factory installed Lenovo Yoga 13).
Assuming the windows shows as genuine, is the license transferable? I.e. does the copy of windows transfer to me once I complete the purchase?
If it comes preinstalled on the drive, unless its a retail license, its licensed only to the hardware it comes preinstalled on.
2. Clean Install / Lack of Media
Since the system is second user, I'd like to clean install the system. Assuming there is no media (I don't recall receiving media with my wife's yoga 13 that was factory installed purchased from Lenovo direct) can I obtain media somewhere?
Lenovo notebooks include a feature called the Lenovo OneKey Recovery button, which is used to boot into the Recovery Environment and reinstall Windows.
If you would like to reinstall Windows 8, which means removing apps and personal files and settings, you can use reset and refresh. This is equivalent to a clean install.
To do it, do the following:
· Press Windows key + i on your keyboard to show the Charms bar (If you are using a touchscreen: Touch the right edge of your screen and swipe your finger to the left)
· Click Settings
· Click Change PC settings
· Click General in the left column
· Under Remove everything and reinstall Windows, click Get started
![Microsoft Licenses Second Hand Microsoft Licenses Second Hand](http://www.brakensiek.com/ERP/27113/w600/bild.jpg)
Then follow the instructions that will be provided on the screen to reinstall Windows on your PC.