Long story short. I have a PC that i installed (generic, no activation) Windows 8 and installed the free Windows 8 media centre pack offer in 2012 and my windows 8 was activated after the installation. Later in 2013 I bought a retail Windows 8 key from MS store online but did not use that key and forgot all about it. I upgraded to Windows 10 a few days ago without changing my Windows 8.1 to that key. My question is without using that Windows 8 key, am I able to switch computer and able to keep Windows 10 after a year. Thanks in advance.
If you are activated with win 10 now, that key belong to that computer only. The key is a summ of harware devices on you computer, so even if you just change mobo the key will be lost. Did this ansver your question?
What do you mean switch computer? I'm not sure, but you better ask MS. I guess that if you're changing components in a desktop PC, that's ok, so "switching computer" is really just changing the components.. You can clone the HDD