I've seen this question asked before, but I couldn't find the proper answer I was looking for in the thread. Is it possible to upgrade from an OEM copy of Windows 10 to a full Retail version, whilst retaining all of the data from the previous install. So if I were to buy a proper Retail. Windows 8 and later OEM Product Keys are embedded in the UEFI BIOS and automatically input during installation. This video discusses how to switch to Windows. Click on the Start button in the bottom left of your screen and select Settings again (you can also press WINDOWS+I to open the Settings window) Click Update & Security and then select the Activation tab on the left. In the Activation tab, click Change product key Now enter your Windows 10 Pro OEM key and click Next to activate.
Can you move OEM Windows 10 to SSD?
OEM (short for original equipment manufacturer) is a full version of the operating system, which ends up preinstalling on PCs. Every OEM version has its own license key. And the license is locked to the hardware on which it was first activated. So, the OEM license key is not transferable. And this is a doubt of many users who want to transfer OEM Windows 10 to new hard drive, just like the following case.
“I've read a lot of posts online and get that OEM license key is not transferable. I recently bought a new disk and want to transfer my OEM Windows 10 to new hard drive. Does it work on this computer? Do I need to buy a new license key? If anyone has any personal experience, that would be great! thank in advance.”
It is okay to say that the OEM license cannot be transferred, but it is more accurate to say that you cannot transfer the license key to another computer. That’s to say, you could move OEM license to HDD/SSD as long as you don’t change the important hardware of your computer, such as, motherboard, CPU.
Why transfer Windows 10 OEM to new hard drive?
As mentioned above, the OEM version can only be used on the first activated computer. In general, if you don’t change the motherboard of your computer, transferring Windows 10 and its license to new hard drive is possible. Here are two main reasons for this operation.
① Want a bigger capacity: If your original hard drive is too small, you may want to migrate Windows 10 to new hard drive and get more capacity. This may be a new life for you computer.
Change Windows From Retail To Oem
② Need a better performance: After long time use, you may find your computer takes longer to boot, the programs on it gets stuck from time to time, the loading speed is slower etc, then it's imperative to clone Windows 10 to SSD to improve the computer performance, preferably a larger one.
Step by step guide: how do I move OEM Windows 10 to HDD or SSD?
A free and reliable disk cloning software like AOMEI Backupper Standard is indispensible for users to transfer Windows 10 OEM copy in Windows 10/8/7/XP/Vista. With its clear interface and user-friendly design, all the users even novices can use it smoothly.
It supports disk clone and partition clone, and the previous one will contain everything on the disk, including the operating system, boot-related partitions, installed programs, personal data etc. It supports intelligent clone technology, so you can not only use it to clone disk to larger disk, but also clone larger HDD to smaller SSD. In addition, if the target disk is an SSD, you can use its powerful 4k technology to speed up the disk performance.
✎... Please note that the free version of AOMEI Backupper only supports cloning system disk with the same partition style, for example, MBR to MBR or GPT to GPT. To check the disk partition style, you could go to disk management, right click the hard disk or the SSD, choose Properties -> Volume -> Partition Style, then you will see its partition style, either MBR or GPT.
Then, let's get started to transfer OEM Windows 10 to new hard drive, either HDD or SSD. The detailed steps are below.
Step 1. Install SSD on your computer. If it's a laptop, please use USB-to-SATA cable to connect for cloning. Then, download AOMEI Backupper Standard, install and launch it, click Disk Clone under the Clone tab.
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Win 10/8.1/8/7/XP
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Note: If the target disk is smaller, you could consider using 'System Clone' in AOMEI Backupper Professional.
Step 2. Select the old hard drive of your computer as source disk and the new HDD or SSD as destination disk successively.
Step 3. Tick 'SSD Alignment' to accelerate the reading and writting speed of SSD disk if it is. Then, Click Start Clone to run the pending operation.
Except for 'SSD Alignment', there are two diferent options, namely, 'Edit Partitions' and 'Sector by sector clone'. Both are applicable to clone disk to larger disk, but they cannot exist at the same time. The previous one is to make full use of unallocated space after cloning while the latter is to clone all sectors of the disk including the blank sectors and bad sectors. But it's all your decision.
Conclusion
The OEM license key restriction has no effect on the same computer, so you can easily transfer OEM Windows 10 to new hard drive with a trust and reliable disk cloning software like AOMEI Backupper Standard, whether you want a bigger capacity or better performance. With the help of it, you can clone hard drive with different size, either larger or smaller. Also, you can maximize SSD performance with 4k technology. If you happen to have this need, why not give it a try right now?
Last updated on August 28th, 2019
This tutorial contains instructions to convert Windows Server 2016 Evaluation version to Licensed. As you know all Evaluations versions is available for testing for 180 days and after that period you must convert the Evaluation version to Licensed first and to use a valid product key in order to activate Windows Server 2016 (or Server 2019)and use all its features without problems.
How to Convert Evaluation Server 2016 or 2019 to Licensed Version.
To convert Windows Server 2019 or 2016 Evaluation to Licensed (Retail):
Check Windows Version Retail Oem
1. Open PowerShell as Administrator and give the following command to find the installed version of Server 2016:
- DISM /Online /Get-CurrentEdition
2. Then give the following command to convert the Server 2016 Evaluation version to Full Retail (Licensed):
- DISM /online /Set-Edition:ServerEdition /ProductKey:XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX /AcceptEula
* Notes:
1. In the above command, change the ServerEdition according to the installed version.
For example…
1. If the installed edition is the 'ServerStandarEval' then the command is:
- DISM /online /Set-Edition:ServerStandard /ProductKey:XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX /AcceptEula
2. If the installed edition is the 'ServerDatacenterEval' then the command is:
- DISM/Online/Set-Edition:ServerDatacenter/ProductKey:xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx/AcceptEula
2. If you have a KMS host running in your deployment, then you can use a KMS Product key for activation or you can use the KMS key to convert the Evaluation version to licensed and then (after the conversion), to change the product key and activate Windows by using the slmgr.vbs /ipk command.
3. When the operation is completed, press the 'Y' key to reboot the Server and apply changes.
That’s all folks! Did it work for you?
Please leave a comment in the comment section below or even better: like and share this blog post in the social networks to help spread the word about this solution.
