Windows Activation
Hello people I have recently changed my CPU, Motherboard and RAMs so I was planning on reinstalling windows on my PC. Last time I installed Windows was probably or so 10 years ago and I can't remember for the life of me how I activated it.
Any recommendations on activating the new install? Or is it too much trouble nowadays and should I just buy a key?
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Which Windows? Windows 10 and above have the key attached to your Microsoft account, so you shouldn't have any issues. I'm pretty sure they're free now anyways (in exchange for being spyware).
That's assuming you've ever logged into the account.
It isn't mandatory? Can I detach my account from an install that is already registered, or would they just make the association anyways with the hardware specs?
You unplug ethernet during the install to get the "limited setup", which just means without a microsoft account.
It's not mandatory, but they keep making it harder every update.
I'm not sure your registration would remain once you detach the account from your install, but I do think you can still detach it.