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At work, I use a Dell Optiplex 3010 that came with Windows 7 and has been upgraded to Windows 10. We have an older Windows XP system that runs a critical piece of equipment. This Optiplex will become a 'newer' (3 years old instead of 9!) Windows XP system to run that equipment - I have this part set up, XP can boot from another hard drive.

We have spare a Dell Inspiron 3646 that came with Windows 8.1 with Bing and has been upgraded to Windows 10. This will become my new PC when my current one goes out to run our equipment.

I've been working on hunting down installation discs and downloading (our internet connection really sucks) the software I have on my current PC to the Inspiron, and it's really slow going.

Could I just put my current hard drive from the Optiplex into the Inspiron? Would Windows 10 still see itself as authentic?

Lyrl
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I have run into this (if I'm understanding your situation correctly). I had a Windows 8.1 machine and upgraded it to Windows 10. I THEN built an entirely new machine from the bottom up. New motherboard, RAM, EVERYTHING. I took out my harddrive from my old machine which had Windows 10 in it thinking this is going to be great. I'll be set. I ended up booting up my new machine and Windows 10 saw everything was new and saw it as a different machine entirely so it asked to re-authenticate. I tried to put in my old Windows 8.1 key however this didn't work. I called Microsoft support and explained the situation. They informed me that I needed to basically start from scratch and have the new system have Windows 8.1 on it, THEN authenticate it and THEN upgrade to Windows 10. In short, if I'm understanding your problem as I read it, you need to start with the original disks with the new machine, authenticated and THEN upgrade to Windows 10.

Dale

Dale
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  • I'm marking this as the answer because I've seen other interactions with Microsoft support that say you can switch hardware components (even to the point of everything except the hard drive being new) but you have to start with a clean install of the original operating system. I was hoping there would be a loophole of moving between two towers that both had authenticated Windows 10, but it looks like no such luck. – Lyrl Oct 01 '15 at 14:24
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If the Optiplex's Windows 7 copy was an OEM copy (came from Dell with Windows 7) on it, then that OEM Copy of Windows is tied to that computer. THIS LINK WILL DOWNLOAD A PDF FROM MS in regards to OEM Software Licensing Rules state that OEM licenses are tied to that physical machine forever. Even if the machine is dead, you cannot move that license to another machine.

If that's not the case, and you purchased a Retail copy of Windows 7, then you can move it, as long as it's only installed on one PC.

However, swapping the drives might be more time-consuming than just downloading the software onto the Inspiron.

You will probably be faced one of more of these problems:

  1. System won't finish booting
  2. Windows will load, but many drivers will need to be updated.
  3. Windows will load, you install new drivers, but there will always be something that doesn't work quite well with the system. Quite well versus just using the Inspiron with the Inpsiron's Windows 10 disk.
  4. You will have to re-install Windows 7, download programs needed, get updates, get windows 10.

You are better off just leaving the Inspiron disk alone and finding the software. Should be less of a headache, and the legality of not being able to transfer an OEM License.

N. Greene
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  • Yeah, the Windows is OEM. I've switched hard drives with earlier versions of Windows and been fine, but the Windows 10 seems to have much stricter verification protocols. I was hoping there would be a loophole for moving between two machines that both had authenticated Windows 10 operating systems. – Lyrl Oct 01 '15 at 14:23