In this article blog post we will discuss how you can transfer your Windows 10 license to a new computer owner? You will be able to transfer licenses from one computer to another. It could be between your own computers or to a new computer owner. But first of all, it’s important to know that not all windows licenses are transferable. You are only able to transfer windows retail licenses and not OEM licenses. Doesn’t matter which version of Windows you have either Windows 7, 8, or 10. If you don’t have the retail license for it, you will not be able to transfer it to another laptop/computer. So, before you go ahead deactivating your computer it’s important to check if your license is actually transferable. That means you should have a retail license.
If you are not sure what kind of license you currently have, I will tell you how to verify that in a few simple steps. The second thing is to ensure is that you have access to the license itself. Each license comes with a 25 characters product key. You can find this from the email through which your license was delivered. Or from your computer, using some special tools and commands. I will share the steps on how to do that in this tutorial as well.
First, you need to verify that you have a retail license and not an OEM license. The major difference between these two is that the retail license allows you to transfer the license from one device to another while the OEM license doesn’t. Secondly, with most retail licenses you are able to upgrade from Windows 10 home edition directly to pro edition without having to reinstall your windows while with the OEM you can’t do that. You can only use the OEM license to activate already installed windows on your device. You can reinstall Windows on the same device and still retain your OEM license though.
In case you are yet to acquire retail license, I would recommend buying it from Microsoft’s official website. There may be other websites which may provide you licenses for a cheaper cost, but they may not be able to assist you in case of error or with installation support.
To purchase and download retail licenses from Windows you can use Microsoft’s Windows download page.
Check whether you have retail or OEM Windows license
To be able to transfer Windows 10 license to a new computer you first need to check whether you have an OEM license. So, let’s move on to how to verify whether you have a retail or OEM version of Windows. Usually, if you have a laptop that came preinstalled with Windows 10 then you are most likely to have an OEM license. But to verify, follow the steps below.
1. Go to Windows search box.
2. Type “CMD” and click on the command prompt app from the search results.
3. On the command line type the command mentioned below and hit enter.
SLMGR -DLI4. Wait for a few seconds and you should have a dialog box pop up as shown in the image below. you just look for where it says retail channel or EMDM channel depending on what version you have.
Here as you can see mine is the retail license. If yours is OEM then it should say OEM DM as shown on the different computer image below. Again, remember you cannot transfer all your licenses. You can only transfer a retail license.
With that done the next thing is to ensure that you have your 25 characters license code. You can find this code from the email with which your license was delivered or using some special tools or commands. There are many tools that you can use to find the Windows license key on your computer. Some of them are Belarc Advisor, Free PC Audit, Abelssoft My Key Finder, License Crawler, and many more. For more information about how to find your license key, also check out Microsoft’s article on how to find Windows product key.
Let’s take Free PC Audit for example here. It is one of the tools used for this purpose. As the name implies is completely free, it’s small in size just about 3 megabytes and it doesn’t require installation. You can just run it from a USB drive.
After downloading just click on it once and wait for the process to run. Afterwards, you should have a result that looks something like below.
You can see this tool also displays a bunch of other information about your computer. Here we are interested in the windows product key. On the left-hand side, you’ll see a description, where it says windows product key, and next to it is your 25 characters license code. You can simply right-click on it and select “Copy” and then save it to a text file. Or even take a screenshot and then save it as an image.
Also see – How to transfer files from Windows to iPhone without iTunes?
Deactivate your Windows license key
Once you have retrieved our license key, we can proceed to deactivate the currently activated Windows on your computer. You’ll have to do that before using the license to activate a new computer. Below are the steps to deactivate your Windows.
1. Go back to Start menu search and type “CMD“.
2. Right click on the “Command Prompt” and select “Run as Administrator”.
3. On the command line type in the command below and hit enter.
slmgr.vbs /upk4. Once you run this command, it will uninstall the product key itself. When uninstallation is complete you should have a dialog box that says, “Uninstalled product key successfully”.
If you get something different then try to run the command again or follow the instructions on the dialog box.
5. Next you want to also remove the key from the registry. To do that type in the command as shown below and hit enter.
slmgr.vbs /cpkyOnce the command runs successfully, it will pop up a confirmation to verify that it was successful and with that, you have successfully deactivated Windows on your current PC.
You can now transfer Windows 10 License to a new computer owner. You can use the same license to activate Windows on a different computer or activate it on the same computer if you wish. Also, see our Windows 10 tips and tricks to make the best use of Windows after activating it.
