Installed new motherboard and can't boot windows.

You still are not reading what is being said, are you? I NEVER said it can't be done. I said it is NOT legal to do it! READ YOUR EULA!!!!!

If you are doing this for clients, and you are taking their money - you are, technically, conspiring with the owner to commit fraud!!!! That makes you equally guilty and liable - if not more so because you, as the professional, should know better. That is not my opinion but the facts. I am just the messenger here.

It is my opinion, however, that you need to stop now! If a client wants you to swap motherboards, you need to insist they bring in their EULAs or their "original" Windows installation disk. If it is not a "retail version" and this is not to replace a broken motherboard, then your civic and professional duty is to educate your client to the law and have them buy a new license.

Note it does not matter what country you are in. If your country is a member of the United Nations and/or the EU, your country has agreed to abide by a uniform set of copyright and patent protection laws and UN charters that govern these things.

I could care less about MS's arcane EULA. Its something that I have no time for and MS has never hastled me since 1993 when I started my business. I have a good idea that MS is busy with other stuff so please spare me the LAME argument about frivious technicalities that are not even enforced in the enterprise level which I am not. I would like to point out that if you are scared of such proclamtions made by MS I imagine your shop (if indeed you own one, lol!) is pretty quiet these days. I am a MS certified partner,I worked for MS for 3 years, and I can tell you from experience some things are just ignored. technicians have more important things to worry about. You should learn more about the software itself and not the bloated EULA which has the substance of bran IMO. By the way good luck turning me in. Anyhow, I think of your "business" and I imagine you eagerly awaiting customers to call, for weeks on end. LOL.Business bad? Stop worrying about the EULA when it comes to rebuilding a PC for goodness sakes. Oh have you ever installed Win on a business machine? THATS probably a violation of the standard license as well. Better watch out or they will come to Nebraska and take your , cough, computer. I grew up in Microsoft. i started doing work for them in the 1990's in high school. So take your "watch out" story elsewhere. Dont be a patsy. Is this what i have to put up with at thsi site? Wow its pretty useless. i ask for help and I get over posters trying to meet quotas, and now this. Save it. I will gladly move on. oh, gotta run! take care

I could care less about MS's arcane EULA.
I can tell you from experience some things are just ignored

I suppose you roll through stop signs and red lights too, since those are mostly ignored these day. Oh well, that just leads to your character, not mine. I personally don't break the laws just because I can get away with it.

By the way good luck turning me in.

Now's who's paranoid? I have no intentions of doing that. If the software police want to go after you, they can do that with a court order to site admin, not me.

As I said above, I am just the messenger. If you want to heed the warning, that's great. If not, and you get caught, don't claim you didn't know.

Originally Posted by Digerati

@kemical Actually, there's no limit on CPUs (except as limited by the motherboard/chipset) but there are limits to the number of hardware changes that can occur before the re-authentication process is triggered. .

Yes that's true but after changing the CPU twice you have re-activate.. I should have been clearer..

Originally Posted by bcarroll

Due to the fact a moderator has not specifically said they are closing the thread, I have re-opened it. .

I'm not sure who closed the thread but this is not how we do things here. To close a thread and save confusion, valid reasons must be given as well as a post explaining why it was closed and who closed it. Otherwise the thread in question will be opened again by someone else...

Thank you. It is now re-opened.

@reffu - sorry for the distractions. Obviously, the use of OEM software on other than the "original" hardware is a controversial topic. What you do is your business but it is the business of this Moderator to make sure users know the truth, and the laws, and whatever other information they need to make the right decision.

that's true but after changing the CPU twice you have re-activate

Ah, not sure I knew how many times. Thanks. The problem I have is by the time I get around to upgrading a CPU, I have already added RAM, perhaps a bigger drive, and a bigger graphics card too. In other words, several HW changes, never really knowing which change triggered the re-activate notice.