Do I Need to Buy Windows Again if I Switch From Intel to Amd

qubit

Try it and see. At most it will blue screen.

Bill's licensing issue in his advice will be the main problem here, though. If you have an old W7 or W8 disc, try installing and activating that and then upgrading to W10, which should have you fully activated.

newtekie1

If you have an old W7 or W8 disc, try installing and activating that and then upgrading to W10, which should have you fully activated.

You don't have to do it that way, just install Windows 10 directly picking the correct version when installing, tell it you don't have a product key. Then when you are loaded into Windows 10 after it is installed, go to the activation area under Settings and you can put the Win7/8 key in there.

tabascosauz

Looking for some advice. Would it be advisable for a clean software install when changing my set up from Intel to AMD. I have just changed from i7 7700k to AMD5900x.

It's more than just advisable. There's a quite a bit of difference in how Windows handles old CPUs vs. new CPUs, and a lot of difference in how the Windows scheduler interacts with Intel vs. AMD CPUs. Fortunately, Ryzen 5000 does away with the need for chipset driver power plans, but you certainly don't want Intel ME firmware hanging around on a system that needs AMD's chipset drivers. Kaby Lake did have Speedshift, but AMD CPPC goes much further than that and is much more integral to performance.

If you were upgrading from a 6700K to a 7700K or a 3700X to a 5900X there probably wouldn't be as much reason to clean install (though honestly you always should when upgrading platform hardware).

Windows will probably let you transfer your existing activation easily if you usually log into Windows using your Microsoft account. Just note down what your current computer name shows up as in Windows, do the clean install, then under activation it'll ask which of the licences under your account you want to transfer over. If you don't usually login with your MS account, might have to use Produkey to dig up your *real* Windows key buried in the OS and manually enter that after clean installing.

Mussels

Hmm Why switch to AMD? isn't like the Intel Core i7 like one of the best processors around today? My DELL is intel core i7 while my almost year old HP Laptop is AMD Ryzen 5.

What kind of question is that?

You know there are hundreds of i7's with all different performance, and dozens of ryzen 5s?
Vague blanket statements like "i7 is best" is absolutely not how tech works

Splinterdog · May 26, 2021

Under those circumstances a clean install every time and if you're worried about activation, old Win 7&8 keys will still do the trick.
That way you end up with a virgin install, the way it's meant to be with such a huge hardware change.

qubit

You don't have to do it that way, just install Windows 10 directly picking the correct version when installing, tell it you don't have a product key. Then when you are loaded into Windows 10 after it is installed, go to the activation area under Settings and you can put the Win7/8 key in there.

Good point, I'd forgotten about that and just went old skool lol.

Mussels

While i'm against the idea of moving between hardware, one good tip is to 'reboot to safe mode' and then power off before it boots, so the new hardware gets a safe mode boot