[TIP] Lazy hardware upgrade path?

[Metanis]

Yes, I should've done a clean install. I know that up front.... But sometimes you need to experiment....

So, I've seen some videos lately of how forgiving Windows 10 is to hardware changes.

This weekend I had a customer tired of his slow Dell Inspiron A10 system he bought nearly 5 years ago. He's cheap so I got him a Refurb Core i7 Optiplex 9020 and a 1TB Evo 960 SSD. Then I cloned the Inspiron drive to the new 960 drive and installed that drive in place of the drive that came with the Optiplex.

So the boot drive went from an AMD A10 to an Intel i7 and the machine booted normally although a bit slowly as it downloaded and installed all the new drivers it needed!

I should note that the Inspiron had a retail version of Win10 Pro which remained happily activated. I had to do a telephone reactivation on his Office Pro 2019. And I still need to reactivate a CAD-related LOB application that also recognized the hardware change.

Other than that, I failed to recognize that a Microsoft login is the same as a Domain login, so in order to fix his login PIN I had to revert to local login, delete all files in C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\LocalService\AppData\Local\Microsoft\ngc, and then go back to his Microsoft login and the PIN began to work again. If I ever do this again I'll remember to switch to a local login before cloning the source drive!

Then I did a full tune-up on the Optiplex 9020 because just like any brand-new machine it didn't have the current BIOS and now needed a complete set of Dell and Intel drivers.

Since it worked so well I decided I wasn't going to go back and do a clean install. I then proceeded to uninstall or delete every reference to the old AMD hardware and drivers. (Including all the hidden devices left over in Device Manager!)

From a licensing standpoint, I will wipe the older Inspiron system and then boot it with the Refurb disk. Yes I suppose it's not legal because each machine will be using the other machine's Win 10 Pro license. But both licenses were legit when I started. He will end up with his old machine with a minimal Win10 installation which he can repurpose.

TLR? Maybe WAAS isn't so far away? Won't it be nice when software is no longer force-linked to hardware?

 

[britechguy]

I seldom say something like I'm about to, but the number of things wrong, from technical, ethical, and likely legal (licensing) standpoints in the above are too numerous to mention.

It's an absolute mess, even if it's working right now, and something that should never have been attempted to begin with.

 

[fincoder]

I suppose it's not legal because each machine will be using the other machine's Win 10 Pro license. But both licenses were legit when I started.

Legally? IMO that's perfectly fine. Both machines have a valid license for the software installed on them, and can be reinstalled if needed. The license for Windows 10 is embedded in the BIOS or saved with Microsoft as a digital entitlement, product keys aren't used anymore (for branded systems). I actually don't believe there is an issue legally at all.

Ethically? Well the client probably didn't want to reinstall their software, so is likely very happy.

Technically? Recent versions of Windows 10 (since about v1909) are very good at adapting to changed hardware, and it's good at providing drivers automatically. I've done this (on request of the client) and no issues have arisen. Sometimes technical advice changes over the years.

 

[Markverhyden]

likely legal (licensing) standpoints

This situation is one of those grey areas in my book. There is no public way to determine that the OS software in an image belongs to a certain machine. Dell and M$ have a contract for the OS but the EU's contract for the OS is with Dell even though there is a passthrough M$ EULA. But the key is the original licensed OS on each machine. If they are both originally licensed, for example, W10 Home then that threshold is met. Both chassis have to have the same original OS. Now the next step is dealing with AMD vs Intel. Been a while since I've actually read those EULA's. But I don't remember anything specific to those features.

So, as long as both machines came with the same version you can move drives. Done that many times in the past.

 

[Metanis]

This situation is one of those grey areas in my book. There is no public way to determine that the OS software in an image belongs to a certain machine. Dell and M$ have a contract for the OS but the EU's contract for the OS is with Dell even though there is a passthrough M$ EULA. But the key is the original licensed OS on each machine. If they are both originally licensed, for example, W10 Home then that threshold is met. Both chassis have to have the same original OS. Now the next step is dealing with AMD vs Intel. Been a while since I've actually read those EULA's. But I don't remember anything specific to those features.

So, as long as both machines came with the same version you can move drives. Done that many times in the past.

Just to muddy the water, the source machine originally had W10 Home OEM but then had a retail-box W10 Pro Upgrade applied while the target machine had a W8 Pro OEM but then had a W10 Pro Refurbished added on top. I think M$ getting paid 4 times for each machine's OS is sufficient. But I can see why they are driving us toward the subscription model.

 

[fincoder]

I can see why they are driving us toward the subscription model.

Subscription model for OS?
That's just a prediction that has been trotted out by randoms ever since 365 was released. Still no sign of it, or any evidence it's coming.