How to transfer Windows 10 activation serial from old computer to new one
If you have an old Windows 10 desktop or laptop that is 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 expensive.
Starting at $100 and going up to $200, the official Microsoft serial costs almost the same as a 1TB hard drive, 16GB of RAM, or even a new motherboard! Also, never think about 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 a 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 using the old computer license 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. But you will need to consider some restrictions before proceeding.
One is that this method won’t work with OEM license keys, which are keys that come with a computer you bought in a store, like laptops that came with Windows 10 preinstalled. Manufacturers embed these keys into the hardware they came with, so they can’t be transferred to new devices.
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 for which you purchased it.
Meaning, if the serial is designed to activate Windows 10 Pro, it cannot activate Windows 10 Home. Rather, the Pro version must be installed on the new device.
If you have a Windows 7 or 8 activation key, you can still use it to activate Windows 10, but only through the standard activation process and not through the slmgr command . Now that we have clarified these things, let's start reviewing the steps...
You should also watch this topic: How to install Windows 10 from a hard disk using an ISO file (without a flash drive or CD)
First: Deactivate the old computer
Before you start deactivating Windows on your old computer, make sure you save your Windows 10 activation key somewhere. If you have a product packaging or a digital receipt, you can get it from there.
Otherwise, there are a few ways you can retrieve the activation key including using the Produkey tool from Nirsoft. After running the tool on your device, the activation key will appear under the “Product Key” column.
You should also watch this topic: Do you really need to reinstall Windows? How to speed up Windows without reinstalling it?
Now to deactivate the old computer, you will need to open a command prompt in administrative 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 keys together on your keyboard and select Command Prompt (Admin) from the menu to open the Command Prompt window.
In the command prompt that appears, execute the following command and then restart your computer:
slmgr.vbs /upk
But if you plan to sell or give away the device, you may want to completely erase the key from the registry as well. It is not strictly necessary to deactivate, but it is better to protect the license key. To do this, execute the following command:
slmgr.vbs /cpky
If the command is executed successfully, and you see the message “Uninstalled product key successfully”, then you have deactivated Windows 10 on the old computer.
But you can still use Windows, but it won't be treated as genuine Windows, and some features - like desktop customization options - won't work.
Second: Activate the new computer
After you have deactivated Windows 10 on your old computer, it is time to activate your new computer with the same activation key. You can also do this using the slmgr command so open a command prompt as administrator and execute the following command, replacing XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX with the activation key you have:
slmgr.vbs /ipk XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX
If the command is executed successfully, you should see a message "Installed product key successfully" indicating that Windows has been activated. However, if you try to use an activation key that has not been removed from the old computer yet, the command may take a while to execute and you will eventually see a message stating that activation failed. So make sure to follow the steps explained 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 the new computer, you will get 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 get an Invalid Key error.
The best thing you can do in these cases is to open the Settings app from 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 enter the activation key manually in the window that will appear.
Note that if you are using a Pro activation key to activate Windows 10 Home, this method will automatically upgrade your system to Pro 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.