Restoration of a Backup to a different machine - licensing issues?

[britechguy]

All of us are constantly trying to get all of our clients to adopt a regular, cyclic full system image backup protocol so that they have something to restore from in the event of disaster.

For the most part, that typically means system drive failure on the machine the backup was taken from. And in that situation, restoration to a new drive is completely non-problematic and you just go on your merry way.

But what about other situations, where the original hardware is destroyed? If you restore a full system image backup, at least of an Windows 10 instance, to another machine it, and all the software that was backed up with it, will generally run, but Windows is not officially licensed because the restored instance and the instance that "came with" have two different license keys.

I have never given this second situation a lot of thought and it has me wondering if there is an official mechanism to get a Windows instance restored from backup actually licensed on hardware that was not its original home? I've certainly never tried it, and I'm not talking about a situation where you're setting up machines from an image meant to do just that, where the licensing takes place as part of firing up those machines for the first time.

 

[thecomputerguy]

Never had luck with stuff like this. TIme Machine seems to handle this 1000x times better.

Just stick with OneDrive for backup and rebuild whatever system dies from scratch.

 

[phaZed]

As long as the "new" hardware is similar (Usually MB and CPU is enough), Windows will re-license just fine. If the hardware is too dissimilar, then per the licensing terms you will be purchasing a new license. If it's an OEM machine, then usually it will accept the license in the BIOS so long as Home/Pro versions match.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

More of a "moral" or "professional" preference, IMO.
Windows OEM license have always been "live and die with the hardware they were purchased with/on". Aka.."non-transferrable"

Sure...you can "usually get" a desktop to settle down and activate.
Sure...you can often/usually even get a "server" to settle down, activate.

I look at it this way though. And I agree, I'm biased from the point of view of someone who really just focuses on business clients, not home/residential users. I can always re-pave a clients workstation..when setup on a network. LOB software on the server, desktop setup installer for the client portion of an app, printers deployed via group policy, typically 365 users so installing Office and configuring email and getting their documents and desktop stuff back is easy peasy.

Heck, my laptop that I'm typing from right now, could burn to the ground, so I get a new one, unbuckle the OS, sign into 365..BOOM, the vast majority of my stuff is back. Sign into Chrome, the rest of my stuff is back.

Servers...we've pretty much always done Microsoft Volume Licensing from the get-go for clients server OS's. Never OEM. Wanted to build our relationship with Microsoft as a reseller, and hey..make some coin along the way. A benefit of that was...when backup evolved into DR....where you'd restore an image back to new hardware (or new hypervisor)....the license was legit and proper.

I have been to DR scenarios where...restoring to new hardware, the server refused to re-activate...thus blocking logging in...to be able to adjust network settings...so the "quick DR" product the client got (not ours)....sure, put the image back quickly, but the server wasn't able to get activated until...jeeeze...many many hours later after transferring to multiple Microsoft support lines and finally getting an activation key after purchasing a full proper Retail key for the client. OMG what a night mare. <they were not a managed client of ours, but it got us to FULLY commit to our already existing creed of "retail/volume license only for servers..never...ever...ever...ever...OEM."

As for desktops....same scenario, but of course level of importance diminishes..it's not like a server. I'd take the "re-pave" approach, fresh OS, install programs, restore data. But if you can sleep well cheating it...without fear of the Microsoft police knocking on your door...that's another choice.

 

[nlinecomputers]

I've never really had a problem doing this. Usually it will come up, download new drivers, and then give you an activation error. Running the activation troubleshooting tool will pull the correct key from BIOS and everything is fixed. Under the strict limits of Microsoft Licensing this isn't legal but it is not something that will get you sued. Not worth the legal fees especially as both PCs will be properly licensed.

Other software like office or Adobe products will also likely fail but can be reactivated.

 

[britechguy]

Windows OEM license have always been "live and die with the hardware they were purchased with/on". Aka.."non-transferrable"

I am not, really I'm not, trying to start any sort of licensing opinion war, but as far as I'm concerned Microsoft has completely obliterated all lines between license types since Windows 10 has arrived on the scene. You can even (when last I checked, anyway, and that's been over a year now) run an unactivated copy of Windows 10 with the vast majority of the expected functionality with no time limit.

If, as you've observed, "you can 'usually get' a {desktop|server} to settle down and activate," then, as far as I'm concerned, it's licensed per Microsoft. They are, and always will be, the gatekeeper, and if you show up at the gate and they say "enter" then I'm not going to tie myself in knots trying to find some reason that what has occurred is wrong. They are the arbiter, not me, and I am unwilling to take on that role, ever.

If they won't (re)activate, then it's purchase another license.

 

[nlinecomputers]

I am not, really I'm not, trying to start any sort of licensing opinion war, but as far as I'm concerned Microsoft has completely obliterated all lines between license types since Windows 10 has arrived on the scene. You can even (when last I checked, anyway, and that's been over a year now) run an unactivated copy of Windows 10 with the vast majority of the expected functionality with no time limit.

If, as you've observed, "you can 'usually get' a {desktop|server} to settle down and activate," then, as far as I'm concerned, it's licensed per Microsoft. They are, and always will be, the gatekeeper, and if you show up at the gate and they say "enter" then I'm not going to tie myself in knots trying to find some reason that what has occurred is wrong. They are the arbiter, not me, and I am unwilling to take on that role, ever.

If they won't (re)activate, then it's purchase another license.

Well in most situations both the old pc and the new pc will have a license. Only clone white box systems ship without a Windows license. The key stored on the image will be the old machine and running the troubleshooting tool will retrieve the new license from the BIOS. Moving an image isn’t really kosher but the results are still the same number of licensed PCs

 

[fincoder]

But what about other situations, where the original hardware is destroyed? If you restore a full system image backup, at least of an Windows 10 instance, to another machine it, and all the software that was backed up with it, will generally run, but Windows is not officially licensed because the restored instance and the instance that "came with" have two different license keys.

As long as the new computer has a Windows license then there isn't a problem. The only issue would be going from a computer with Pro license to one with Home license. An upgrade to Pro could be purchased and kept on record, then that issue would be solved. No need to actually make sure the computer is activated on a particular key, but eventually it would if Windows is reinstalled.

If the image on the new hardware does de-activate and won't re-activate, you can change the product key to the one in the BIOS (which can be displayed by utilities like ProduKey) or COA sticker (in the case of custom-builds or Windows 7 PCs). But if already activated I wouldn't bother.

As long as the "new" hardware is similar (Usually MB and CPU is enough), Windows will re-license just fine.

The hardware similarity used to be an issue for moving a Windows 7 image due to driver issues (BSOD on boot), not an issue with Windows 10. In regards to licensing, similarity is irrelevant. Different hardware will cause deactivation, whether it's similar or not. However it will likely re-activate automatically by picking up the new key in the BIOS, or from the Microsoft account.

Well in most situations both the old pc and the new pc will have a license.

Exactly, it's not moving a license from one computer to another it's moving an OS image from one licensed computer to another licensed computer. The actual key in the OS registry isn't important, just having a license for the new computer is the only requirement. If it won't re-activate for whatever reason you could shoe-horn the new key into the OS, otherwise don't bother.

Incidentally, PC enthusiasts do move their license to a new unlicensed custom-built computer. Maybe not strictly legal if it's OEM but Microsoft's activation troubleshooter allows the license to follow the Microsoft account anyway.

 

[britechguy]

Maybe not strictly legal if it's OEM but Microsoft's activation troubleshooter allows the license to follow the Microsoft account anyway.

I'm done with the "strictly legal" part. If Microsoft allows it, it's legal. They are the gatekeeper, and absolutely have the ability to stop this if they wish (and they used to do so).

If contact is made to the Microsoft servers, and they activate the instance, it's a legal as it needs to be.

I will no longer be trying to figure out if something is OK with MS or not when I have no way of doing so independently. That's their job.

 

[fincoder]

I'm done with the "strictly legal" part. If Microsoft allows it, it's legal.

I agree. Microsoft has an option called 'my hardware has changed' in the activation troubleshooter, why not use it?

 

[NviGate Systems]

Let's say you have a client and they have an HP Laptop with Windows 10. It dies. But they have another HP that they can use. If both laptops came with Windows 10, Windows *should* see the hardware change and make a fuss. But it *should* also see there is a new Hardware key. Now, there are utilities that can read BIOS keys, then you can manually enter that key to force Windows to use the new hardware's key.

In the case of Windows 11, if the code application will read Windows 11 keys, restoring backup to the new machine & upgrading should be fine and then input the key once 11 is running. We used to have the same issue back in Windows 8 days. Do the update to Windows 8.1 and Windows would freak out because it couldn't figure out what license to use and simply said "unlicensed". You had to manually extract the key and manually enter it, then Windows would calm down.

 

[nlinecomputers]

Let's say you have a client and they have an HP Laptop with Windows 10. It dies. But they have another HP that they can use. If both laptops came with Windows 10, Windows *should* see the hardware change and make a fuss. But it *should* also see there is a new Hardware key. Now, there are utilities that can read BIOS keys, then you can manually enter that key to force Windows to use the new hardware's key.

In the case of Windows 11, if the code application will read Windows 11 keys, restoring backup to the new machine & upgrading should be fine and then input the key once 11 is running. We used to have the same issue back in Windows 8 days. Do the update to Windows 8.1 and Windows would freak out because it couldn't figure out what license to use and simply said "unlicensed". You had to manually extract the key and manually enter it, then Windows would calm down.

You don’t need to do all that. The Windows Activation Troubleshooter has always retrieved and automatically activated everytime for me.