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Greetings All –

I’m confused about windows licensing.  I have built all of my PCs for years now and have always purchased my parts along with a copy of Windows from the likes of Newegg, Amazon, or Best Buy.  I was under the impression that purchasing Windows in this manner, categorizes the license as retail, and that OEM designations were for already assembled machines like Dell, HP, etc.   I just ran slmgr /dli from the command line, and it returned: OEM_COA_NSLP channel.

I’d like to think that if my next PC stills runs on WIN 10, that the product key would be transferrable.  Clarification if you please.  Thanks.

Casey H.

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You can buy retail or OEM Windows depending on what else you buy at the same time.
You bought / were supplied an OEM version. I’d check your receipts.

cheers, Paul

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Casey H

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Thanks Paul.  Sure enough.  The invoice from Newegg shows OEM.  I guess that slipped me by.  That means then that this copy of Windows is attached to what: the motherboard?

Casey H.

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Casey H wrote:

That means then that this copy of Windows is attached to what: the motherboard?

Yes.

Try contacting Newegg and replacing the OEM license for Retail.

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Casey H

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Thank you Alex.  I’ll give that a try.

Casey H.

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I had an interesting experience some time ago that may help others avoid this situation.

I have a Samsung laptop that I had considered a bad buy. Although an i7, startup was horrendously slow but it was a useful machine for testing things. Eventually the hard disk died so I decided to put an SSD in. I was able to install Windows without being forced to enter a key. I may have opted to enter that later, I’m not sure.

It was an OEM licence that I had upgraded free to Windows 10 and before I started the rebuild, I contacted Samsung who told me they could not give me the key as the hard disk had been changed. I always thought you were allowed to change a number of components and argued that point but Samsung would not budge.

I expected to get nagged for a key but didn’t and after a few days I got curious. Delving into settings I found the machine was licensed through a digital license attached to my Microsoft account. It seems that if you have a licence linked to that, it carries through.

Hopefully this may help someone else. It’s worth registering for that alone.

 

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Is it still a slow machine with the SSD?

cheers, Paul

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Alex5723 wrote:

Casey H wrote:

That means then that this copy of Windows is attached to what: the motherboard?

Yes.

Try contacting Newegg and replacing the OEM license for Retail.

Well, actually, it’s more complicated than that.

Depending on market area and local rules, you may be able to get an OEM license with just about any parts. The license is then attached to “that system” and you are allowed to replace parts when they need replacing, as long as it still is “that system”.

Exactly what “that system” means will go back to local law.

Windows 7 OEM licenses were sold with just a single new DDR2 DIMM once upon a time, in some European country… apparently, at the time, the localized Microsoft paperwork for resellers just said “new hardware” but didn’t say how much hardware. Don’t know if that was also in the original English paperwork but…

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“This is the knife my great-grandfather used to kill Indians with; we’ve replaced the blade twice and the handle 5 times, but it’s the same knife.” (My apologies to Native Americans.)

Zig

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Past few days when booting I get the message that windows 10 license is about to expire soon and points me to the settings. However my license came with the machine and the settings does not show any last date for renewal etc. I tried (1) slmgr -rearm remove command (2)went to services.msc window, and “Disabled” or “Windows License Management Service” and “Windows Update” (3)removing and reboot after deleting win.exe but no change. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

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Windows licenses don’t expire.
Are you sure that is not a malware message?
Does the message offer a link to a validation page? If so, what page does it send you to?

cheers, Paul

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Paul T wrote:

Windows licenses don’t expire.

Actually they can expire… if it’s Enterprise or Education. You can get those as time-based subscriptions.

Uncommon though, and you should have a corporate / campus IT helpdesk to go with those.

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