If you have "RETAIL" copy of 7, 8, 8.1 Pro, then yes you can reinstall on any computer even if you change motherboard, HD, whatever. OEM, nay, hope your computer lasts a long time, or you need to buy Win 10
They say there's over 4 million Insiders, that why they are not getting it free $$$$$ Thre counting on people being confused, and end up having to buy
one of my computers was a hp oem 8.1 the motherboard failed,i put in a new but different motherboard (gigabyte) with the original hd with os,programs and files installed,just had to change drivers for new board architecture,it activated fine,i'm sure if the same thing happens with 10 installed with this board,microsoft will help me out as before.
I have this thing bugging me so much and i need to know before i go back to 8.1.... If i am currently on the preview and it updates to RTM can i just slap my 8.1 key in settings to activate it? i have reserved my copy already.(When i was previously on 8.1) PS. I hate that Microsoft's stipulations they are all webbed
LOL, no they haven't. They used to be absolute douches about it when it came to re-activation. I can remember many times trying to re-activate XP and Vista by phone (before the automated system was put in place) and I felt like I was in an interrogation room with an FBI agent. So after that I said screw it and KMSed most of my installs even though I have enough legit keys to cover everything.
No, backup copy or roll back to previous OS, if you still have windows.old, as that is where your previous OS is kept
Okay so it needs a first time activation before it registers to Windows 10... so does that mean the same key letters and numbers will now activate windows 10 anytime i need to reformat?
Is your hard drive big enough for 2 OS? If you do, you can have both w8.1 and w10 to play with ms, and you'll win no matter what.