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A Hardware upgrade for an OEM Win 10 updated to Win 11 Pro

AnandTech Forums: Technology, Hardware, Software, and Deals [Un… June 17, 2026
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Nobody answered my question about software installed on a retail-box Win 11 system when swapping CPU/motherboard with transfer of the boot disk.

I'll find out about the software on my own, I suppose.

But what I thought was a "retail" Windows 11 installation on the old hardware was in fact an OEM Win 10 OS updated to Win 11 Pro -- which means the OEM digital license is bound to the old hardware.

I'm getting ready to "SYSPREP" this old system and swap in a new motherboard and processor. I assume that the OS will exhibit an "activation" problem once I boot up with the new hardware.

I HAVE a new retail Windows 11 Pro in the shrink-wrap box under its own as yet unapplied license/product-key.

Would I just use Settings ->System->Activation->Change_Product_Key to use the new product key from this new Retail box? Or would I run into some sort of trouble, and need to use the new USB flash drive included in the new retail box to do an in-place-repair-upgrade of the entire boot disk and...

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