Imaging and Windows licensing

Discussion in 'backup, imaging & disk mgmt' started by SandyD, Mar 27, 2020.

  1. SandyD

    SandyD Registered Member

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    Jun 27, 2008
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    Just wondering how Windows licensing deals with images. I want to use a second partition on my win 10 to restore prior images. If these images were taken on a previous pc will this cause Microsoft to question my valid license? Obviously I have a current license on the main partition but how does the restoration process deal with that and any changes in the hardware?
     
  2. roger_m

    roger_m Registered Member

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    With the change in hardware, Windows will most likely become inactivated. Do you have a license key for Windows 10, or do you have a digital license tied to your hardware?

    I'm not sure how Windows 10 handles the same product key on multiple partitions, for you to use the product key used on the first partition to activate Windows on the second partition. But with digital licenses, you can have multiple Windows installations on the same computer with no issues. I've got 24 Windows 10 installations on one my PCs and they all automatically activated with a digital license.
     
  3. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    Location:
    NSW, Australia
    I'm using BootIt UEFI as the boot manager. Win10 was installed to this new computer (home built), the product key was applied and Win10 became activated. Several other Win10 were installed to the same and different drives in the computer and the product key wasn't used. All Win10 automatically activated as the computer had been "fingerprinted" by the first activation.
     
  4. roger_m

    roger_m Registered Member

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    That makes sense. You get a digital license after activating with your product key.
     
  5. SandyD

    SandyD Registered Member

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    Jun 27, 2008
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    thank you for your insights
     
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