Like it didn’t launch? Or that the validation step failed?
It’s supposed to initiate the license transfer program. I suppose if you never set up a Microsoft account then it would not have worked.
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This is probably the direction they are heading to.
And that is likely the reason why in the near future Windows 11 home and Pro users,
will both need an MS account to be able to use it.
The license will then likely being tied to the said account yeah.
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Validation failed and it was linked to my Microsoft account. I verified all of that before changing motherboards.
Sorry, slui 4 didn’t launch at all. I actually just tried it again myself.
Do you get any specific error codes?
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While Linux is cool and all and I don’t really want to be “that guy” that defends Microsoft of all companies, however, I believe there has to be an option and the criticism is not entirely justified. I understand where you are coming from and I would myself be very pissed about MS not activating my license.
I used to call Microsoft all day long to re-activate retail keys for windows 10 and office 2013, 2016 and 2019. I called so many times that I even knew their IVRs and how to get around them and even noticed whenever they changed it, so that I’d have to listen to all its bs that I already listened to tens of times.
Usually, a license gets activated over the internet. When that breaks down, you call the robot and insert a code on the screen. After that, you usually get a unique activation code that you can use to always reactivate your license (yeah, I know, an activation code for your license). I used to skip it, because I could always call MS for that. Oh, funnily enough, when the robot would start to tell me to write down the activation code, I would just go back in Windows, then activate over the internet, which now would work, then close the call with the robot.
Only 2 or 3 times I had to be put to speak with a human, with one time because the license was from Belgium and I activated it in another country (it’s complicated).
Microsoft is a s*** company, but usually their activation process is one thing that works fine, unless you do something wrong, like telling the robot you used a license on multiple computers. Even if you did, that doesn’t count as long as the old computer doesn’t have that license associated with it anymore, so as long as you are not using a license in 2 places, you should always say 1 install.
It is worth noting however, that there are multiple retail licenses:
- One is OEM keys, which get stuck to the motherboard.
- Another is the normal retail (physical box with a sticker), that also gets stuck to the motherboard and is non-transferable.
- Another is an online retail (the MS store one IIRC) license, that is both stuck to a certain MS account and to the motherboard.
- The last one that I know of is a “compliance retail license”.
This is a special kind of license, which is usually more expensive. This one is kind of like “you used Windows without a license for a while, but now due to certain stuff, you have to activate your Windows”, so MS gives you an option to buy this license as a “sorry I used Windows w/o a license, here’s some money MS, let me keep using Windows and don’t sue me”.
We always used to buy these kind of licenses and activate them immediately, only because we knew those were transferable between machines, because we used to buy laptops w/o an OS and use our own licenses. In the long term, it was cheaper. You get a physical box for this, but without any sticker inside, just a cardboard with the activation key that you have to enable in a MS account to get your license. You can have up to 10 licenses per account or so if I’m not mistaken, so you always create new accounts to manage newer licenses, because in those scenarios, MS wants to sell you a Volume license, which is a different kind of beast.
Actually, just like you would sell your old laptop with an OEM key and continue using the old key, so it would apply to motherboards. You sell your mobo, the new user gets the key once they try to activate Windows. Although MS claims that the motherboard isn’t the only thing that they use to verify that a license is attached to. In reality, I found that, if the license wasn’t attached to the motherboard’s serial number (that you can find using wmic bios get serialnumber in CMD), if was probably assigned to an Ethernet or WiFi MAC address, which would also usually be on the motherboard. You could have some luck if you activated a license when you had a physical Ethernet card, and when switching it to a new one, be able to keep your license.
Yep, that’s what I used for calling the robot. Man, was that IVR so ridiculous. Initially I would just start typing my answers, like 1, 1, then the on-screen code, or something like that, but at some point, the MS engineers split the IVR into 2 messages, so the first one had to be played until the end, before the second one would kick in for the answers. I did that so many times, that they probably noticed something was not right, because I was ending the call in less than a minute, with an IVR that should last about 5 minutes, lmao 
Also probably helped because after the bot would ask me to insert the code, I would go back and use activation over the internet and it would work. Man, did I like to fugg with the MS phone robot.
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I’ve gotten a few different error codes at different times. I did look through that support page and tried the resolutions before getting in contact with support.
Thank you for trying to help.
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I bought the retail license from the Microsoft store. It’s pretty damn scummy that there is no mention of it being tied to a specific motherboard forever at purchase. I don’t believe that anyone should have to purchase a $200 license more than once. This was not the case with Windows XP or 7. You bought it and owned it. Period.
I also never got an option to input a license key through the automated system. I put in a request on the website and the first rep called me.
I just won’t be dealing with Microsoft ever again after this.
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A retail license should be transferable.
But you have to deactivate the other system firstly.
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I did, but it’s okay. They can steal my $200. I’ve been wanting to move to Linux for a few years anyway, and now that gaming is getting better it’s a lot more viable for me.
In my experience with three different desktop machines, Windows license has just worked on all three even after adding a new SSD and removing the hard disk.
In my experience, at least the OEM license stays with the machine.
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I think the license Authenticates depending on the motherboard.
But if one buys a retail key, and registers to a different machine, iirc, the MS servers de-authenticate the board it was assigned to.
And if it is in use, I suspect, the user would get a notification that the copy of windows is not genuine. Then it’s down to each user to prove their copy is the legit one.
OEM versions I do not know, but suspect stay with the board, and are only supposed to move to a replacement if the origional is dead, but again, that is a major presumption
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How I believe it works (I don’t think it’s well communicated hence the issue I had) is if you login with your Microsoft account your Windows 10 licence is registered to that and you can uninstall and reinstall based on your account. If you have a local account it registers to your hardware and you end up with a de facto OEM version. I never bound my PC to an online Microsoft account because I find that entire concept odious as all hell.
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Well i dont really want to burst your bubble.
Because idk which particular games you like to play.
But it probablly isn’t.
Gaming on Linux is getting better yes but it’s still miles behind Windows.
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I suspect / hope that with the introduction of the steam deck that over the next few years that will change drastically!!!
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Well honestly with all the fragmentation Linux world.
I personally don’t really see this drastically change anytime soon.
I’ve already checked ProtonDB and the vast majority of the games I own on Steam are playable with minimal tweaking. The ones that aren’t I have no issue waiting on. 
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I bought CP77 on GoG. I thought, welp, lets allow them to profit more, let that cut stay in-house. Now, I want to replay CP77 with all the new patches and have to reinstall Windows to do it (I’ve got a free drive where my old Windows install was). Since GoG does not support Linux.
Distros want to drop 32 bit support, and Steam is the last major thing holding them back. Sooner or later we will se Steam shipping with all of the necessary libraries, maybe as a Flatpak.
Don’t reuse the Windows NTFS library - I tried, and that way lies madness. Like, most of my problems stem from that. Not surprising considering I’m using the ntfs-3g fuse filesystem. Once I started installing games on my xfs drive, it worked mostly fine. I think Mass Effect Andromeda has other issues, but no way to check atm.
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Yea that’s more than likely what’s going to continue to be the norm, but one can still hope?!
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I plan on doing complete reformatting of all drives, so I should be good. My ISP doesn’t have a bandwidth cap and I’ve got a 400Mbps connection, so it’s not an issue to just re-download.