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Forum nameThe Computer Forum
Topic subjectRE: Rebuild of Existing Box---What Are the Chances That I Can Use Existing Copy of Win10?
Topic URLhttp://www.pcqanda.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=2&topic_id=564450&mesg_id=564451
564451, RE: Rebuild of Existing Box---What Are the Chances That I Can Use Existing Copy of Win10?
Posted by Ttech, Sat Aug-12-17 01:31 PM
Will it activate? You won't know until you try. Since you got the free upgrade from Windows 7 or 8, you might need the product key from the previous version. If this was a factory built computer you won't have a license key sticker for Windows 8.

Here's some info from Microsoft:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12440/windows-10-activation

Quote:
Activating Windows 10 after a hardware configuration change

If you made a significant hardware change to your device (such as replacing the motherboard), Windows 10 might no longer be activated and you might see the activation error codes 0x803f7001 or 0xC004C008. If you're running Windows 10, version 1607 or later, and added your Microsoft account and linked it to the digital license on your device, you can use the Activation troubleshooter to reactivate Windows. For more info, see Using the Activation troubleshooter.


From this it looks like you need to make sure that you have added your Microsoft account to the old installation before you try to make the swap.

If it doesn't activate, it sounds like you already purchased another Windows 10 license that should work if you can't reactivate the old one.