If under the 'Windows' section, the Activation reads: Windows is activated with a digital license linked to your Microsoft account, then your device license is already linked to a Microsoft account, and you can skip these steps, and continue with the reactivation process below.Ĭonfirm your Microsoft account credentials. Quick note: You must be using an administrator account to complete the process. If under the 'Windows' section, the Activation reads: Windows is activated with a digital license, then under the 'Add a Microsoft account' section, click the Add an account option. To ensure that you can reactivate Windows 10 after a hardware change, use these steps: How to prepare reactivation before hardware change on Windows 10 How to reactivate installation after hardware change on Windows 10.How to prepare reactivation before hardware change on Windows 10.In this Windows 10 guide, we'll walk you through the steps to properly use the Activation Troubleshooter to reactivate your device. However, the activation process has changed since the original release of Windows 10, and you can now link your device digital license to your Microsoft account, which you can then use to reactivate the installation using the Activation Troubleshooter in the same or clean installation of the OS. In older versions, if Windows lost its activation because of a hardware change, you needed to go through the tedious process of contacting Microsoft support to reactivate, which is not an ideal solution, and no many users were aware of the option. As a result, the installation will become deactivated (with error 0xC004F211).

On Windows 10, when you make a significant change, such as replacing the motherboard, hard drive, or processor, the system may fail to recognize the computer.

Change motherboard system image