if I replaced too many parts in PC will I be forced to replace Windows?

[residentisz]

so I'm slowly starting to buy the components I need to upgrade my PC (just buying new mobo/cpu/gpu, but already on my 2nd HDD for the OS) and a friend told me that if you upgrade too many items Windows 7 will force you to buy a new license or upgrade to 8.

Never heard of that, so thought to ask if anyone here knows if that's BS (which I suspect it is) or legit so I can plan to shop ebay for a new Win 7 (have win 8 on my laptop, its meh still like 7 more)

[Flatspriest]

As long as you still have the valid key for Windows 7, no, you will not have to buy another copy or upgrade. You may have to call them to verify the key, but that just takes a few minutes to do.

[Deleted]

usually just an issue with a mobo swap/replacement whatever all it takes is a single phonecall to the automated system , play with numbers and voila.

[vesseblah]

If you bought your Windows from store as a retail box it will work always regardless of how many parts you change, you'll just need to redo activation after you change certain number of parts.

If you bought cheaper OEM version the license (not the software) ties the installed OS into one computer. Since there are no technical reasons blocking you from reinstalling it again, it's up to you if you choose to honor that license restriction. It's very much on the gray area anyway for home users because people do quite drastic upgrades something but it is still essentially the same computer which is why Microsoft dropped the OEM licensing model completely from Windows 8 as being too arbitrary.

Both abvove versions will activate five times over the internet automagically with a press of a button, after that you need to call into Microsoft's phone support to reset the five installation counter and explain to them why.


If your Windows comes with some prebuilt computer like Dell, HP, Acer, Lenovo etc then it could be locked to a certain kind of motherboard and it can not be activated on a computer with different type of board. These locks were really common with Vista and XP but does not always happen with Win7. There's no way to know for sure before you try to install it.