Our Windows 10 product keys are the highest tier retail licenses. A Retail license is the only type of license that binds to a person and not to the device hence, they do not require Certificate of Authenticity or license stickers as they are freely transferable across multiple devices. This means that you can use the license to activate windows unlimited number of times on the same device and even on a different device.

Highest tier retail license can upgrade lower and older versions of Windows such as Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 to Windows 10 as well as upgrade Windows 10 Home to Windows 10 Pro by simply entering the product key. Highest tier retail license also allows you to use Windows 10 on any hardware that meets the minimum system requirements and upgrade your operating system without any restrictions in the future.

An OEM key on the other hand, is only installable on a single PC as it tend to attach to the computer’s motherboard making the system difficult to upgrade as the key persists even after installation of a new system. Some OEM keys are locked to a specific brand of hardware such as HP, Dell and Lenovo and will produce an error if installed on a different hardware. A change in hardware such as hard drive, video card or any parts that are not there during the first time Windows 10 was installed disables OEM licenses as they are very system specific.

Because highest tier retail licenses are never bound to the system, You will activate your Windows by simply logging in to the Microsoft account where you bound the product key to during the first installation. However, there are rare cases wherein users failed to bind their product key with their Microsoft account while also forgetting the Product Key. If that is the case, this guide will be extremely helpful in reformatting your PC without the need to sign in with your Microsoft account or re-entering the Product Key.

1. On the lower left portion of your desktop, click the Windows search bar and type Reset this PC. Click it to open the recovery settings.

2. Click Get Started under Reset this PC.

3. Select Remove everything.

4.Then select Remove files and clean drive.

5. Lastly, click Reset. This will reformat the drive where you installed Windows 10 thus removing all files permanently. This will also reinstall a fresh copy of Windows 10 using the digital license previously used making your Windows 10 automatically activated after installation. Your PC will restart multiple times during this process.

Resetting your PC will give you a perfectly clean installation of Windows 10 with all previously saved files deleted and unrecoverable making it ideal if you are planning to sell your PC with an activated copy of Windows 10 or if you simply want to have a fresh, clean system. You can use this feature unlimited number of times! The entire process will take about 30 minutes to 2 hours depending on the speed of your PC.