Good evening. I will try to make this as short as possible. Back in 2019, I built myself a custom PC and installed Windows 10 on it. After a year, I got tired of the little "Activate Windows" popup, so I decided to buy an OEM license from Kinguin. Of course, I went through the whole process and got my Windows activated, no issue there. Fast forward to now, I wanted to upgrade to Windows 11. I was advised by many to do a fresh install so I avoid any issues that might arise if I just simply upgrade it (such as compatibility issues). Now, I have factory reset my PC before, and it never caused any issues, but I've never fresh-(re)installed my OS. This got me thinking about one thing that I could not find any information about. Is there a problem if I fresh-install Windows while having a Kinguin key? What I mean is, will the key deactivate since the system is being overwritten, or is it saved on the motherboard or something? If it does deactivate, is there something I can do about it, or will I need a new key? Furthermore, since Windows 10 keys work on Windows 11, can I theoretically fresh-install Windows 11 out of the box and not have any issues? If it does deactivate and I want to fresh-install Windows 11, can I reactivate using the original method, or is the key done for? Overall, what is the process that I must follow if I want to fresh-install Windows 11 from a Windows 10 install with a Kinguin key? Will everything just work out of the box, or will I need to extract my key somehow and reuse it on the new install? Can I even reuse my key on the new install? Any and all information will be of great help. Thank you for your time and help, they are truly appreciated.
@Batimius If Windows 10 is activated with a genuine key on your computer and Microsoft has accepted it once, then your computer is registered as genuine on Microsoft's servers and the next time the same computer will be activated automatically within some time after receiving an Internet connection. Your computer now has a digital ID and digital activation, and you don't have to do anything with this key anymore than it was to activate one computer. If it was to activate multiple computers, you can activate another computer with it. It doesn't matter if it was an OEM or Original Equipment Manufacturer Key or something else. In case your Windows was activated with a company key, you need to connect to the server of the company that actually owned or owns the key. So your computer should activate automatically and you don't need to enter any more keys anywhere. So please do not enter any kaey during installation. If it is needed, you can enter it at any time later.
Thank you so much for the reply! I appreciate the help and the detailed info, it truly helps a lot. I did want to ask one thing though. It should be taken as a standard that it should activate on it's own when installing Windows 10, but does the same apply for Windows 11, or will I need to freshly install Windows 10, update to Windows 11 from inside Windows, and then fresh install Windows 11? Again, thank you for your detailed reply, I greatly appreciate it!
@Batimius As far as I know, there are no changes when upgrading to Windows 11, so it should work exactly the same. Anyway, I haven't had any problems regardless of how I upgrade.
Just install the same edition of Windows 11 (ie. Home or Pro) and you don't need to even enter a key, the moment you get online your machine will say Activated with a digital license as your hardware is registered on the Microsoft Activation Servers (HWID Activation)