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Tip

Microsoft account for Windows 10

Jul 21, 2016 9:49AM PDT

Well MS is adding another reason to use a Microsoft account to login to Windows 10. Contained in the Anniversary update of Windows 10 there is a new process that will make it easier to do a clean install of Windows 10 if you have changed your hardware. Previous when you activated Windows 10 it created a unique ID identifying your hardware on the MS servers. This process is called Digital Entitlement. When the Anniversary update comes out on Aug this digital Entitlement will be linked to your MS Account. Instead of only identifying the hardware it will identify the hardware also associated with the you. I believe this make it so you don't have to call MS if like you change a HD or others components other than the mobo. I believe a change in the mobo will still make ne defined as a new PC.

Discussion is locked

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Yes. For decades the motherboard change
Jul 21, 2016 10:22AM PDT

Makes it a new PC. There's not much news to this. It's a well done discussion. Can you sum up your question?

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It was a tip not a question
Jul 21, 2016 11:39AM PDT

if you have a MS account and you get change a hard drive you probably won't have to contact MS to activate. The new process will identify you and your hardware and it will activate without having to call MS.

It links your digital ID to your MS account. Currently with just having the digital ID on the MS activation servers you would probably need to call MS to successfully activate to do the clean install.


The 2 situation it will help in is
1. If you replace you motherboard with a new one (same model) linking the MS account to the hardware ID will result in activation success without have it call MS.

2. If you did an anytime upgrade from like Windows 10 home to Pro it will activate a clean install without have to call MS.


http://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-tweaks-activation-rules-for-the-windows-10-anniversary-update/

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Just last week another W10 HDD to SSD change
Jul 21, 2016 12:10PM PDT

And it worked fine without a call. The login was local so I think it used the hardware hash method. There are many articles about this area but it's nice to have it just install and activate.

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Yes it's always great to
Jul 21, 2016 12:22PM PDT

have things work they way they are supposed to.