Forum Discussion
Can't move Windows 11 Pro key to new machine
I'm in the middle of building a new PC and am unable to move my Windows 11 Pro license to it. I have verified with cmd that it is Retail channel and license, IIRC it was purchased as Windows 10 Pro a...
Same issue here, with a retail license linked to my Microsoft account.
- Old PC: Windows 10 Pro, retail digital license linked to my Microsoft account. It doesn't support Windows 11, so I built a new PC.
- New PC: Windows 11 Pro, signed in with the same Microsoft account.
- Activation settings show Windows isn't activated.
- Troubleshooter → "I changed hardware on this device recently" says it can't find any devices linked to my account that can be used for reactivation, even though the old PC shows in my devices list.
- The support virtual agent keeps looping back to the same troubleshooting steps, with no way to reach a human.
- Old PC is powered off
This looks like a server-side license-linking problem, since multiple users report identical symptoms. Could a moderator escalate?