In the end, though, it all sorted out I was able to upgrade my motherboard and processor without the need to reinstall Windows. Maybe I should have waited to use the Windows 7 key until after I upgraded the motherboard, rather than before? Who knows. So, I'm not sure why I encountered these stumbles.

After verifying that I had indeed purchased a new motherboard and confirming the product key I had, he did some work behind the scenes, and voila - Windows 10 is now activated. I finally called Microsoft support and spoke with a product engineer. I also tried changing the product key to the Windows 7 that I had previously used. I tried this method several times, but Windows just refused to activate. The new device popped up, I confirmed I was using it, and clicked on activate. I went to the Activation center, clicked on troubleshoot, and selected the option for 'I recently changed hardware on this device' or something to that effect. However, Windows 10 was no longer activated. I did eventually install all the supplied drivers with my motherboard, but there were zero problems on the initial bootup.

I completed the new build, fired up the upgraded motherboard and, happily, Windows was working perfectly. All was working - Windows 10 reported that it was activated. So, I swapped out the product key from that computer to the computer that I was planning to upgrade. I had recently upgraded that computer to Windows 10 and verified that it was a retail license.

Long story short, I'm all set, but it was a windy path getting to finish.īefore building the new system, it dawned on me that I had a Windows 7 product key that I purchased for an older computer that had come with Windows XP.

Change motherboard upgrade windows 10