Windows and upgrade

Gorwe · April 9

Do you need to purchase another version of Windows when you upgrade your computer or…?

With that said, I'd need to upgrade the CPU(no problem), but what I find really irksome(and a half!) would be the need to buy a new Motherboard. That...ugh! Feels like throwing money through the window tbh. Completely uneventful and meh. MoBo upgrades are the only downside to PC gaming imo.

Torval · April 9

I've replaced my motherboard and moved the OEM license. It's possible. I had to call Microsoft and jump through a bunch of hoops. The end result is that they detached the license from hardware and linked it to my Microsoft account. Not sure if they will do that for you but I am fairly certain it will require a call to Microsoft licensing support.

GladDog · April 9

Microsoft will work with you on licensing. They really only have one concern; is your copy of Windows only being used on one computer? If you answer that question in a satisfactory way, they will give you a new activation sequence to use.

Po_gg · April 9

I believe there is no OEM distincion anymore Torval, since about two years ago.

Prior to that, and also on earlier Windows, that was the case indeed what you mentioned: if you replaced your mobo and had an OEM license, it was up to the goodwill and mood of the support person your luck connected you to. They could help, but they also rightfully could deny it and say "next time buy a boxed version".

Currently with W10 you can reinstall it any time, after serious hardware changes too (you can even move your license onto a totally new and different device) if you have the license associated to your Microsoft account. It only takes a few clicks on your account dashboard.
IF everything works correctly, which is not always the case, it's a Microsoft product after all...

Gorwe · April 9

Po_gg said:

I believe there is no OEM distincion anymore Torval, since about two years ago.

Prior to that, and also on earlier Windows, that was the case indeed what you mentioned: if you replaced your mobo and had an OEM license, it was up to the goodwill and mood of the support person your luck connected you to. They could help, but they also rightfully could deny it and say "next time buy a boxed version".

Currently with W10 you can reinstall it any time, after serious hardware changes too (you can even move your license onto a totally new and different device) if you have the license associated to your Microsoft account. It only takes a few clicks on your account dashboard.
IF everything works correctly, which is not always the case, it's a Microsoft product after all...

Thank you all for your insights. Now, if only I could get @Quizzical's expertise on this topic. To be certain.

frostymug · April 9

Po_gg is spot on. Windows 10 is just based on MS account. Easy as it gets

Ridelynn · April 9

You can still buy an "OEM" copy, but it's the same thing as what used to be called Retail. It links to either the activation key or your Microsoft account.

Current OEM keys, as provided by actual OEM pre-built computer, have their activation key stored in the BIOS on the actual motherboard, which is how they prevent you from transferring it.

Microsoft is pretty liberal about allowing transfers. So long as you can answer the trick question GladDog mentioned, and have some proof of purchase (either the key or linked to your MS account), they will usually allow it. They won't allow you to try to dig a key out of the BIOS of an HP or Dell or Lenovo though.

My general rule is: you need a copy for each computer you could turn on and run at the same time.

Po_gg · April 10

Ridelynn said:

You can still buy an "OEM" copy, but it's the same thing as what used to be called Retail. It links to either the activation key or your Microsoft account.

Current OEM keys, as provided by actual OEM pre-built computer, have their activation key stored in the BIOS on the actual motherboard, which is how they prevent you from transferring it.

That is correct, and that's why important to link it to your account if you buy a pre-built.

Local account is still better and more popular, but if you don't associate your "OEM" copy to your Microsoft account after the purchase of the gear (you can switch back and use a local account afterwards to login), it will work as an OEM in the older times: after your pre-built notebook or pc crashes down, your license will go down with it.

While with an associated license you can just get a new gear (or have the crashed down repaired) and install the Win on it, without worries.

The only rule is, as Ridelynn said, one license can only run on one gear at a time.

MisterZebub · April 10

Gorwe said:

Do you need to purchase another version of Windows when you upgrade your computer or…?

With that said, I'd need to upgrade the CPU(no problem), but what I find really irksome(and a half!) would be the need to buy a new Motherboard. That...ugh! Feels like throwing money through the window tbh. Completely uneventful and meh. MoBo upgrades are the only downside to PC gaming imo.

My friend just upgraded his system and had to upgrade to Windows 10 because Win 7 doesn't properly support his new Ryzen processor. Plus normally you're going to need a new board and new ram as well.

DMKano · April 10

If everything else fails OP (which is unlikely) - know that you can run an un-activated version of win10 forever without any limitations.

You still get all the updates, all the patches, all you will see sometimes is a watermark in the bottom right main display that will say "Activate windows..." and you wont be able to change the theme, so both of these are aesthetics.

Microsoft knows about is and wont do a thing as many regions of the world like eastern Europe and many parts of South America run over 90% of win10 without activation.

It's been like this since win10 launch

Gorwe · April 10

MisterZebub said:

Gorwe said:

Do you need to purchase another version of Windows when you upgrade your computer or…?

With that said, I'd need to upgrade the CPU(no problem), but what I find really irksome(and a half!) would be the need to buy a new Motherboard. That...ugh! Feels like throwing money through the window tbh. Completely uneventful and meh. MoBo upgrades are the only downside to PC gaming imo.

My friend just upgraded his system and had to upgrade to Windows 10 because Win 7 doesn't properly support his new Ryzen processor. Plus normally you're going to need a new board and new ram as well.

RAM and CPU aren't problems. Motherboard annoys me to no avail though. As I said, it's very uneventful, like throwing money out the window.

Asm0deus · April 10

MisterZebub said:

Gorwe said:

Do you need to purchase another version of Windows when you upgrade your computer or…?

With that said, I'd need to upgrade the CPU(no problem), but what I find really irksome(and a half!) would be the need to buy a new Motherboard. That...ugh! Feels like throwing money through the window tbh. Completely uneventful and meh. MoBo upgrades are the only downside to PC gaming imo.

My friend just upgraded his system and had to upgrade to Windows 10 because Win 7 doesn't properly support his new Ryzen processor. Plus normally you're going to need a new board and new ram as well.

Just a FYI if you go to the motherboard website they more often than not have the missing drivers to make w7 work with ryzen.

Vrika · April 10

Asm0deus said:

MisterZebub said:

Gorwe said:

Do you need to purchase another version of Windows when you upgrade your computer or…?

With that said, I'd need to upgrade the CPU(no problem), but what I find really irksome(and a half!) would be the need to buy a new Motherboard. That...ugh! Feels like throwing money through the window tbh. Completely uneventful and meh. MoBo upgrades are the only downside to PC gaming imo.

My friend just upgraded his system and had to upgrade to Windows 10 because Win 7 doesn't properly support his new Ryzen processor. Plus normally you're going to need a new board and new ram as well.

Just a FYI if you go to the motherboard website they more often than not have the missing drivers to make w7 work with ryzen.

Ryzen works with Windows 7.

But it might require extra tricks to install because of USB support, lack of DX 12 support is going to be an issue to us gamers in a couple of years, and most security updates for Win 7 are scheduled to end on January 2020.

Personally I love Win 7 and I'm still using it on my old computer, but getting a new computer or making a major upgrade with Win 7 isn't a viable alternative any more.

Tiller · April 10

Asm0deus · April 10

Vrika said:

Asm0deus said:

MisterZebub said:

Gorwe said:

Do you need to purchase another version of Windows when you upgrade your computer or…?

With that said, I'd need to upgrade the CPU(no problem), but what I find really irksome(and a half!) would be the need to buy a new Motherboard. That...ugh! Feels like throwing money through the window tbh. Completely uneventful and meh. MoBo upgrades are the only downside to PC gaming imo.

My friend just upgraded his system and had to upgrade to Windows 10 because Win 7 doesn't properly support his new Ryzen processor. Plus normally you're going to need a new board and new ram as well.

Just a FYI if you go to the motherboard website they more often than not have the missing drivers to make w7 work with ryzen.

Ryzen works with Windows 7.

But it might require extra tricks to install because of USB support, lack of DX 12 support is going to be an issue to us gamers in a couple of years, and most security updates for Win 7 are scheduled to end on January 2020.

Personally I love Win 7 and I'm still using it on my old computer, but getting a new computer or making a major upgrade with Win 7 isn't a viable alternative any more.

I know ryzen works with w7 but if you have issues, thus my post, due to needing usb driver etc etc you can get them from the MB websites...you can even use w7 on intel cpu if you slipstream the missing drivers in your 7w install and you can disable the intel hardware checks.

As for dx12....it's a load of hogwash that it "can't" work with w7 which is why MS is able to make a dx12 "plug in" for w7 users to play WOW with dx12.

While not exactly yesterdays news I think some people misunderstand and think it only works for WOW.....

FAQ

Any other DirectX 12 game coming to Windows 7?
We are currently working with a few other game developers to port their D3D12 games to Windows 7. Please watch out for further announcement.

How are DirectX 12 games different between Windows 10 and Windows 7?
Windows 10 has critical OS improvements which make modern low-level graphics APIs (including DirectX 12) run more efficiently. If you enjoy your favorite games running with DirectX 12 on Windows 7, you should check how those games run even better on Windows 10!

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/directx/world-of-warcraft-uses-directx-12-running-on-windows-7/

Vrika · April 11

Asm0deus said:

Vrika said:

Asm0deus said:

MisterZebub said:

Gorwe said:

Do you need to purchase another version of Windows when you upgrade your computer or…?

With that said, I'd need to upgrade the CPU(no problem), but what I find really irksome(and a half!) would be the need to buy a new Motherboard. That...ugh! Feels like throwing money through the window tbh. Completely uneventful and meh. MoBo upgrades are the only downside to PC gaming imo.

My friend just upgraded his system and had to upgrade to Windows 10 because Win 7 doesn't properly support his new Ryzen processor. Plus normally you're going to need a new board and new ram as well.

Just a FYI if you go to the motherboard website they more often than not have the missing drivers to make w7 work with ryzen.

Ryzen works with Windows 7.

But it might require extra tricks to install because of USB support, lack of DX 12 support is going to be an issue to us gamers in a couple of years, and most security updates for Win 7 are scheduled to end on January 2020.

Personally I love Win 7 and I'm still using it on my old computer, but getting a new computer or making a major upgrade with Win 7 isn't a viable alternative any more.

I know ryzen works with w7 but if you have issues, thus my post, due to needing usb driver etc etc you can get them from the MB websites...you can even use w7 on intel cpu if you slipstream the missing drivers in your 7w install and you can disable the intel hardware checks.

As for dx12....it's a load of hogwash that it "can't" work with w7 which is why MS is able to make a dx12 "plug in" for w7 users to play WOW with dx12.

While not exactly yesterdays news I think some people misunderstand and think it only works for WOW.....

FAQ

Any other DirectX 12 game coming to Windows 7?
We are currently working with a few other game developers to port their D3D12 games to Windows 7. Please watch out for further announcement.

How are DirectX 12 games different between Windows 10 and Windows 7?
Windows 10 has critical OS improvements which make modern low-level graphics APIs (including DirectX 12) run more efficiently. If you enjoy your favorite games running with DirectX 12 on Windows 7, you should check how those games run even better on Windows 10!
https://devblogs.microsoft.com/directx/world-of-warcraft-uses-directx-12-running-on-windows-7/

I think Microsoft could easily release DX12 for all the games on Win 7.

The issue is that they're pushing us to Win 10 by choosing to not release DX12 for Win 7, and any gaming computer design should be about a computer that can run as many games as possible, not just a couple of AAA games big enough to get preferential treatment and DX12 plugin from Microsoft.

Asm0deus · April 11

Vrika said:

Asm0deus said:

...snip...
I know ryzen works with w7 but if you have issues, thus my post, due to needing usb driver etc etc you can get them from the MB websites...you can even use w7 on intel cpu if you slipstream the missing drivers in your 7w install and you can disable the intel hardware checks.

As for dx12....it's a load of hogwash that it "can't" work with w7 which is why MS is able to make a dx12 "plug in" for w7 users to play WOW with dx12.

While not exactly yesterdays news I think some people misunderstand and think it only works for WOW.....

FAQ

Any other DirectX 12 game coming to Windows 7?
We are currently working with a few other game developers to port their D3D12 games to Windows 7. Please watch out for further announcement.

How are DirectX 12 games different between Windows 10 and Windows 7?
Windows 10 has critical OS improvements which make modern low-level graphics APIs (including DirectX 12) run more efficiently. If you enjoy your favorite games running with DirectX 12 on Windows 7, you should check how those games run even better on Windows 10!
https://devblogs.microsoft.com/directx/world-of-warcraft-uses-directx-12-running-on-windows-7/

I think Microsoft could easily release DX12 for all the games on Win 7.

The issue is that they're pushing us to Win 10 by choosing to not release DX12 for Win 7, and any gaming computer design should be about a computer that can run as many games as possible, not just a couple of AAA games big enough to get preferential treatment and DX12 plugin from Microsoft.

I think you missed the point really.

I know MS just wants to push w10 down everyone's throat, it obvious, and that's why I have always said it's hogwash. I mean holding dx12 away is just their way to try and strong arm people to w10.

The point of sharing this article though was to show the naysayers that this is so and also to show that if devs ask MS to they can get dx12 working for w7.

Frankly I have 3 PC's running w7 and so far not one game I wish to play doesn't work on them. DX12 so far is a non issue for me and it's looking like the trend of dx12 being w10 only is going to come to and end soon or possibly they will port DX12 to several bigger titles to try and entice people to w10. I think they are afraid the many of the holds out, of which there are many, will jump ship to linux as linux seems to be getting more and more popular plus vulkan.

Anyways I just thought this was interesting and was sharing.

Edit: hmm look at that I just went purple!

Ridelynn · April 11

Yeah DX12 isn't really pushing anyone to upgrade. And yes, that is a very blatant upgrade tactic, and they had done the same thing with DX10 on Vista.

Still not a whole lot out there that even uses 10 or 11 to be honest that doesn't already fall over to OGL.

If folks want to run 7, or XP, or whatever, Hey - I'm all for freedom of choice. But also, you can't complain too loudly because support for stuff starts to pass you by either. I see DX12 support in that vein. I don't blame MS at all for trying to entice people to upgrade to Win10, and I think they are going about it a lot better with Win10 than they have previous editions of Windows.

Asm0deus · April 11

Ridelynn said:

...snip....

If folks want to run 7, or XP, or whatever, Hey - I'm all for freedom of choice. But also, you can't complain too loudly because support for stuff starts to pass you by either. I see DX12 support in that vein. I don't blame MS at all for trying to entice people to upgrade to Win10, and I think they are going about it a lot better with Win10 than they have previous editions of Windows.

I would agree in general except w10 has gone in a direction many of use really dislike. My next PC will be a VR PC, just waiting to see how the new ryzen cpu turn out, and I will use w10 in this build but will be using LTSB as w10 IMO is not in the same vein as previous windows, far too much data gather, windows store forced on us etc etc

Funny thing though I am not seeing that many DX12 games coming out just like how we never really saw a huge amount of DX10 games. It kind of looks like history is repeating ...

Gorwe · April 12

Asm0deus said:

Ridelynn said:

...snip....

If folks want to run 7, or XP, or whatever, Hey - I'm all for freedom of choice. But also, you can't complain too loudly because support for stuff starts to pass you by either. I see DX12 support in that vein. I don't blame MS at all for trying to entice people to upgrade to Win10, and I think they are going about it a lot better with Win10 than they have previous editions of Windows.

I would agree in general except w10 has gone in a direction many of use really dislike. My next PC will be a VR PC, just waiting to see how the new ryzen cpu turn out, and I will use w10 in this build but will be using LTSB as w10 IMO is not in the same vein as previous windows, far too much data gather, windows store forced on us etc etc

Funny thing though I am not seeing that many DX12 games coming out just like how we never really saw a huge amount of DX10 games. It kind of looks like history is repeating ...

True fact this, I deleted the Win Store. I was annoyed by it and the forced updates etc, so I deleted it. Nobody's FORCING you to use it, you know?

Asm0deus · April 12

Gorwe said:

Asm0deus said:

Ridelynn said:

...snip....

If folks want to run 7, or XP, or whatever, Hey - I'm all for freedom of choice. But also, you can't complain too loudly because support for stuff starts to pass you by either. I see DX12 support in that vein. I don't blame MS at all for trying to entice people to upgrade to Win10, and I think they are going about it a lot better with Win10 than they have previous editions of Windows.

I would agree in general except w10 has gone in a direction many of use really dislike. My next PC will be a VR PC, just waiting to see how the new ryzen cpu turn out, and I will use w10 in this build but will be using LTSB as w10 IMO is not in the same vein as previous windows, far too much data gather, windows store forced on us etc etc

Funny thing though I am not seeing that many DX12 games coming out just like how we never really saw a huge amount of DX10 games. It kind of looks like history is repeating ...

True fact this, I deleted the Win Store. I was annoyed by it and the forced updates etc, so I deleted it. Nobody's FORCING you to use it, you know?

True fact this, WMR headset probably wont work without the store! I am reading that even LTSC 2019, even with WMR portal manually installed, wont work for WMR..so cool story bro?

Want a cookie with your warm milk?

Gorwe · April 12

Asm0deus said:

Gorwe said:

Asm0deus said:

Ridelynn said:

...snip....

If folks want to run 7, or XP, or whatever, Hey - I'm all for freedom of choice. But also, you can't complain too loudly because support for stuff starts to pass you by either. I see DX12 support in that vein. I don't blame MS at all for trying to entice people to upgrade to Win10, and I think they are going about it a lot better with Win10 than they have previous editions of Windows.

I would agree in general except w10 has gone in a direction many of use really dislike. My next PC will be a VR PC, just waiting to see how the new ryzen cpu turn out, and I will use w10 in this build but will be using LTSB as w10 IMO is not in the same vein as previous windows, far too much data gather, windows store forced on us etc etc

Funny thing though I am not seeing that many DX12 games coming out just like how we never really saw a huge amount of DX10 games. It kind of looks like history is repeating ...

True fact this, I deleted the Win Store. I was annoyed by it and the forced updates etc, so I deleted it. Nobody's FORCING you to use it, you know?

True fact this WMR headset probably wont work without the store! I am reading that even LTSC 2019, even with WMR portal manually installed, wont work for WMR..so cool story bro?

WMR, LTSC?

Po_gg · April 12

Gorwe said:

WMR, LTSC?

LTSC is LTSB just renamed by MS for... whatever reasons. And if you don't know, LTSB is the secret, barely available, "Windows 7 -esque" version of Win 10, as it is an operating system and not a tracking/marketing/store tool in the disguise of an OS. It is pretty cool actually - unfortunately you barely can get a hold of it as a home user.

WMR, you don't need to worry about until you'd like to dive into VR.

Ozmodan · April 13

Why in the world would you want to install windows 7 on a new system? Windows 10 is light years better than 7.

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Windows and upgrade

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The world is going to the dogs, which is just how I planned it!