Hi everyone! I don't want to mess up with a Windows 11 Pro license backup so I ask for your help on the best way to backup my Windows 11 Pro license that I want to reuse on a new PC. Here is my PC backstory: - ASUS VivoBook S PC bought on March 2018 with Windows 10 Home; - My company bougth a Windows 10 Pro license to upgrade the stock Windows 10 Home license to Windows 10 Pro license in early 2018; - Windows 10 Pro has been successfully upgraded to Windows 11 Pro on Windows 11 day one release (October 2021); - PC needs to be fully formatted with Windows 11 Home and the original Windows 10 Pro key needs to be reused elsewhere as I bought the ASUS VivoBook S PC from the Company for my personal use and I want to give the Windows 10 Pro key back to reuse it in another PC; - My goal is to use the original Windows 10 Home ASUS license on a clean Windows 11 Home setup on the same ASUS PC. The Windows 11 Pro license will then be sent back to the Company for a new PC activation. Comments/Doubts: - Using various tricks found on Internet to help finding the actual installed license key (Regedit + CMD command + VBS Scripts) gave 3 different results, so I don't know what license is the one associated with the PC and what is the Pro one - No Active Directory account nor personal account has been used with this PC as it was used for a dedicated task: I don't know how Microsoft checks the licens without an @outlook.com or a @company.onmicrosoft.com account tied with the PC The PC is not formatted yet, so I am able to perform any activity on it: do you have any suggestion on the best way to backup Windows 10 Pro license (now Windows 11 Pro) and let the Company use it again on another, totally HW different PC? Sorry for the long post and thanks in advance for your support!
Typing this in command prompt should give you the original key for OS installed put in the firmware from vendor wmic path softwarelicensingservice get OA3xOriginalProductKey Typing slmgr /dlv should give you info on status of activation with a partial key license to verify which one of those 3 keys you've found is for pro
Thanks for the tip! Interesting results here, let me share: wmic path softwarelicensingservice get OA3xOriginalProductKey --> Returned a key that really seems to be the firmware one, thanks! running slmgr /dlv returned the same serial I can find in this regedit path: Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SoftwareProtectionPlatform slmgr /dlv output also contains License Status: Licensed, Remaining Windows rearm count: 1001 and Remaining SKU rearm count: 1001 Now I found out my Windows 10 Pro key and I am able to backup it, but will it work if installed to a totally different PC with the above details shared? Thanks for the big support!
If it's a Retail key you can transfer it to another pc. OEM keys are stuck on the hardware first installed on and is not transferable. You can associate your Microsoft account login on different hardware and is transferable without a key I believe.
Windows 11 Pro key in use is Retail as per slmgr /dlv output, so it's not OEM... I think it should be manageable with another PC considering no account has been associated with it but I think the only way to know it for sure is to try to use the serial number after the ASUS is fully formatted and activated with its original Windows Home OEM serial. I will erase the PC in these days and give the Pro serial back asking the team if they are able to reuse it. Thanks for the support!
Use the QT from here: https://forums.mydigitallife.net/threads/multi-oem-retail-project-mrp-mk3.71555/#post-1283849 It will show you exactly what keys are used on the system. The consumer ISO of win 10/11 will automatically pick up the MSDM key for Home when clean installing.