I have six pc's, with original preinstalled windows 10. I want to add programs to one of these, and then clone it over the other pc's. Will I have a problem with the serial number and the authentication? Will I lose activation? Thank you a lot!
if all the machines are identical in hardware...u mite not lose the activation.....my experience with MS Office for example it always loses the activation when theirs a change or some kind of upgrade. i guess it depends on the cloning tool u use like acronis.
Just test it, install all you want on one of the machines. Create a full backup and apply the backup on one other machine, when the system is not activated try to re-insert the oemm key (you can read it out by using the OEM_Query tool from the MULTI_OEM/RET project). I, myself, would simply go the audit(install all you want)/sysprep/capture route, the iso created by going that route can be used to re-install windows on all desired machines and every machine gets activated by its own oemm key.
It's not a "free hwid" situation, all systems have oemm bioskeys for 10, no mac's etcetc to be concerned of.
If these machines have the product key in the UEFI (OEM-DM) then there is no issue cloning to all boxes. Windows will read the correct key from bios & activate. If they are COA (stickers on the PC), then you can clone to each but will need to install the correct key & activate. Since this is all legit then I seen no issue...
notice what the OP said in line 2....."I want to add programs to one of these, and then clone it over the other pc's." so if he has apps like office or quickbooks,autocat he will lose the licensing in the cloning process for does apps .
I really hoped that this would be it.... I dont realy care if I lose the license of other products, just the windows licening. I have enough answers to go with it. Thank you all so much..... I will inform you what happened.....
why dont you try the sysprep method? install windows without activating. install your apps and drivers. capture the image. create an installation dvd with this image. install to others. all of them should be activated