Win10 License option for refurbishing an old laptop? Use new or change owner?

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I have an old borrowed laptop that I used for a recent trip. It was 8.1 and in very much need of cleaning (garbage and PUPs) and I didn’t want to attach it to any of my systems.

So I bought new memory/battery and a new SSD and reused my own retail license of Win10 Pro to use for the trip.

Now my father-in-law wants to pay me for the upgrades and clean it up for him.

Q. What is the best option for licensing?  I have my current retail  license on the SSD.  I have a new copy of Retail Win10 Pro on its way.

Option 1. I have the SSD loaded as I like it and can make an image and reuse the image on another PC/Laptop in the future and deactivate the laptop from my MS account.  And then apply the new license to the laptop with a new local account for him (delete mine) and then just hand it back clean and new.

Option 2. Deactivate the laptop from my MS account and activate it on his MS account? Is that possible? Can you transfer a license to another owner? Then keep the new license for myself for a future build.

Questions:

1. Can you transfer a license to another owner? Does MS care as long as the license is being used IAW the TOS? It would still be retail on a laptop that has been activated.  My father in-law won’t care if the laptop says registered to me.  But I’d like to separate his use from my credentials.
2. When you deactivate a device/license under MS Account does it deactivate its connection to the device? Or is the record permanent for the next time I transfer it to another device?  I know there is the Update Product Key option within Windows and the CMD option to remove a key from the device.
3. When deactivating the Device from my MS Account and/or removing the key, should I do one before the other?

• This topic was modified 2 years, 4 months ago by . Reason: spelling grammar

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As long as the retail license is only used on one device I can’t see why there would be an issue.

Why do you activate the license with an account? The license is for the machine, not the user.

cheers, Paul

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All the other PC have local account logins, but he had this 8.1 Laptop on a MS login.  I haven’t determined yet if he had anything actually tied to MS Account, but he will def be using one of my Daughter’s Family Office 365 license when I am done.

The new WIn10 Pro SSD is still local account but I have one of my own Ofc365 licenses on the new Win10 SSD which is probably the only reason it is shown activated on my MS account.

It is just easier to keep all the Licenses and Microsoft Accounts between the 8 PC (my 2 and their 6) separate.

They have all local account logins but their 6 machines all have Microsoft App only accounts for Office365 and Minecraft and a few other required apps.

Giving him back this laptop with separate (daughters block of 365) licenses just keeps it easier for me to keep track of and do updates/maintenance/troubleshooting when I have to.

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Just to follow up, I was eventually able to get his original install upgraded to Win 10 Pro using the new retail license.

It wasn’t looking like it was going to work because I had to do the original Win 8.1 DELL OEM Home to Free Win 10 Home on the original HDD and it was super clunky when done (I still hadn’t done any more cleanup of  Dell and MS OEM garbage) but I really didn’t want to have to re-install all his work stuff even if a clean install would get rid of all the bloat.

So I made a Macrium image of that and then restored it to the new SSD.

After that I was able to upgrade to Retail Win10 Pro after a few tries (I made the mistake of not re-starting after applying the license with PowerShell so it kept showing Home until I realized).  Decided to use the new retail for him because his original install still had MS Account login and tied into his Office and Acrobat suites from work.

I would have liked to Decrapify a clean install but I will get with him later and get rid of all the rest of the Universal apps and startup items that he doesn’t ever use and will get it as snappy as possible.  I also still have a disk clean that I can run to get rid of all the leftovers from the two upgrade.

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It’s an SSD, no need to clean if space isn’t a problem. 🙂

cheers, Paul

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