How will moving to an SSD effect my Windows product key

Question

I have an laptop that I like to take to college, to friends to play games, etc. It's getting on a bit now and is starting to feel sluggish. The main limiting factor seems to be disk speed/use so I'm looking at replacing the HDD with an SSD.

What I want to know, will I be able to use my existing Windows copy on the new drive? It was originaly a OEM Windows 7 (no install disc) but I recently did an upgrade to Windows 10.

I've got a flash drive that i created using the MS Media Creation Tool with the right version of Windows (10 64bit Home) so will it just be a matter of installing from that? But what product key should I enter?

And how will Microsoft know that I'm not just installing it on a completly different system?

Answer 1

Your best bet would be to install Windows 7 first with your original product key and then upgrade again. You can download it from the Microsoft website by entering your product key. Download Windows 7 Disc Images (ISO Files) | Microsoft Software Download The issue with this is that sometimes if your windows came pre-installed to the laptop Microsoft may tell you to contact the person who sold you the laptop.

Second option would be just to install Windows 10 with the flash drive you made with the media creation tool and hope that when you install it recognizes that you own a legitimate copy of Windows 10 by signing in to your Microsoft account during the setup.

This is from the "Installing Windows 10 using the Media Creation Tool Website"

Note

If you upgraded to Windows 10 on this PC by taking advantage of the free upgrade offer and successfully activated Windows 10 on this PC in the past, you won't have a Windows 10 product key, and you can skip the product key page by selecting the Skip button. Your PC will activate online automatically so long as the same edition of Windows 10 was successfully activated on this PC by using the free Windows 10 upgrade offer.

AFAIK Microsoft doesn't care to much if you transfer Windows to a new device only that you only use the license key that you have once. Also changing your hard drive should not affect Microsoft knowing that it is the same computer because HDD is not a very reliable identification tool as hard drives can be swapped pretty much at a whim.

If that doesn't work out there should be a trial period built into Windows 10 where you can try to talk to Microsoft directly about the status of your licensing.