upgrading mother board do I have to reinstall the operating system?

[Teca]

I know that years ago (15+ years ago) it was highly recommended that someone reinstall the operating system whenever replacing the motherboard of their setup. Is this still the case?

Going from an Asus P8Z68-v to an Asus Z170a and using Windows 10 if it's relevant. I am aware it's a different chipset but shouldn't windows just ask for the chipset drivers upon loading up with the new hardware?

If there is a way that can avoid having to reinstall the operating system, I would greatly appreciate it if someone could point me in the right direction.

[Thunderball]

You can technically use software to migrate you current OS to use with the new motherboard but doesnt always work. It's recommended to reinstall to avoid driver issues.

[Deleted]

Someone correct me if I am wrong here but the main reason you would reinstall the OS is because the serial code is linked to the motherboard, you can swap out any other part but that. I heard rumors that with Windows 10 you would be able to swap out the motherboard but I don't know if that has come to pass yet.

[Thunderball]

Someone correct me if I am wrong here but the main reason you would reinstall the OS is because the serial code is linked to the motherboard, you can swap out any other part but that. I heard rumors that with Windows 10 you would be able to swap out the motherboard but I don't know if that has come to pass yet.

Changing your motherboard will also reset the activation, but with digital copies of Windows 10 (including upgrades) it's not a problem since they are activated with Microsoft account.

[Cows For Life]

I know that years ago (15+ years ago) it was highly recommended that someone reinstall the operating system whenever replacing the motherboard of their setup. Is this still the case?

Going from an Asus P8Z68-v to an Asus Z170a and using Windows 10 if it's relevant. I am aware it's a different chipset but shouldn't windows just ask for the chipset drivers upon loading up with the new hardware?

If there is a way that can avoid having to reinstall the operating system, I would greatly appreciate it if someone could point me in the right direction.

I mentioned this in a prior thread: Run sysprep and choose out of box experience (oobe) + shutdown and let it do its thing. Once powered down, unplug the system, replace the hardware, boot and let Windows do the driver install, done.

[Teca]

I mentioned this in a prior thread: Run sysprep and choose out of box experience (oobe) + shutdown and let it do its thing. Once powered down, unplug the system, replace the hardware, boot and let Windows do the driver install, done.

This sounds exactly like what I'm looking for. I'll give it a shot. Thank you.

[acphydro]

For what it's worth, I did a swap from the p8z68v to the z170ar. Removed old drivers first then swapped board cpu and ram, fired it up installed new drivers and only issue I had was windows yelling about my activation. I had a digital oem license so I just bought a new oem license. I plan on reinstalling this weekend, just testing overclocks on this install and playing some wow and it seems fine. Hell I've had multiple crashes and what not trying to find stable voltages for my 6600k and windows still appears to be fine. I've found my 6600k's stable point and everything is working fine.

Still going to format but it seems that if I didn't it would be fine.