I recently upgraded my system which involved a new motherboard. I brought over the old hard drive from my previous machine to the new one. I booted it. Bang! And just like that Microsoft deactivated my account. I called them. They said they have no record of it based on the email addresses that I’ve provided.

I told them that I’ve upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 10 a few years back. Microsoft proceeded to tell me that I needed to provide them my Windows 7 product key. Now, I have to look for it. I have no idea where it is. If I can’t find it. I won’t be able to activate it. I’m sure I’m not the only who got screwed for upgrading their hardware.

![](https://uly.me/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/windowsactivate.jpeg)
Windows 10 Activation

Essentially, I’m back to using Linux again, which by the way don’t have draconian methods for simple things like hardware changes.