Bios update Invalidates windows 10 License "new hardware"

[meier47]

I was using a legitimate Windows 7 License which i used for windows 10 actication ~6 month ago.

Now i finally got around updating my Bios and now Windows 10 says
hey you updated your "hardware" your license is therefore no longer valid
A bios update however is NOT a hardware change but a SOFTWARE change.

Please contact the support. And btw you can buy new key on the store.

Of course the support does not work on Saturdays Or sundays.
And Microsoft considers it a good idea to Overlay all screns with "Activate your windows" letters.
(ingame !)


As a side note i did not use a microsoft account to log into my computer (data protection and all).
Though that does in no way justify microsofts behaviour.


Sorry for the rant but i think this is really good to know for all Gamers.

[NakiBest]

if you used a digital license with a Microsoft account, you would not be writing this thread. :)

[Crashed]

Will the following command, alongside calling the Microsoft activation hotline, work?

slui 4

[meier47]

Thanks for the suggestion sorry it seems i need to call the hotline.

It seems when you enter a key
microsoft creates a digital key (hash) from that one and saves it either to microsoft online account (when available) or to a local store.
So any bios update can delete this. Fantastic concept.

Just creating a microsoft account to feed a company more data
which i dislike since windows 95 seemed like a bad idea at the time.

[meier47]

One helpful hint:
The "you need to register your windows Text" which is also displayed ingame is only displayed on the main screen.
Just switch the main screen to secondary and no more text in the game screen.


For now..... will probably soon be displayed on both screens.

[↑↑↓↓←→←→BASelect]

My son was using the free version of win 10 and never had a watermark in any of his games. Just plastered on his desktop background.

[Crashed]

Originally posted by meier47:

I was using a legitimate Windows 7 License which i used for windows 10 actication ~6 month ago.

Now i finally got around updating my Bios and now Windows 10 says
hey you updated your "hardware" your license is therefore no longer valid
A bios update however is NOT a hardware change but a SOFTWARE change.

Please contact the support. And btw you can buy new key on the store.

Of course the support does not work on Saturdays Or sundays.
And Microsoft considers it a good idea to Overlay all screns with "Activate your windows" letters.
(ingame !)


As a side note i did not use a microsoft account to log into my computer (data protection and all).
Though that does in no way justify microsofts behaviour.


Sorry for the rant but i think this is really good to know for all Gamers.

Note that if the Windows 7 key was OEM, then it is only valid for the original hardware, but that means if you still are using the original hardware and can prove you updated said hardware to Windows 10, the hotline should be able to help you?

[meier47]

So the short version after 3 support agents and 4 hours forth and back the result is:
If you were using a local windows account you can forget about it.

In theory it might work restoring the old bios version but I'm not certain that will really help on the one side. And on the other side it is a considerable risk given expensive gaming hardware.
And also i simply dont know my exact previous bios version

Note also try to contact the support agents always in english and use simple language otherwise a less than stellar automatic translation is being used.
I'm also not telling how but with some dev knowledge you can see that the reponses are a mix between bot and human responses. SO that is not a problem in itself though the bot likes throwing useless comments while you talk with the agent.

Next time i do a major reinstallation i will move every game working in Linux to Linux.
WIll not work for all games but might promote it.
I'm also considerably less likely to buy any Betheshda or Blizzard games as those are owned by microsoft. (Blizzard is ruined anyway i think... )

[RiO]

Originally posted by meier47:

So the short version after 3 support agents and 4 hours forth and back the result is:
If you were using a local windows account you can forget about it.

Sounds more like they're unwilling to assist, than it being impossible to assist. Unless of course, you cannot provide the actual license key. As long as you can provide the license key - they would be able to reset its activation.
... though if this were originally a Windows 7 key with a digital grant attached to it; then that might explain things. Because MS pulled the plug on activating Windows 10 with Windows 7 keys a while ago. People had been abusing that loophole for years, in violation of the terms of licensing - and they finally got fed up with it and closed it shut, when allegedly an actual exploit appeared for it that allowed people to forge activations without having a valid Windows 7 or 8 key.

Originally posted by meier47:

It seems when you enter a key
microsoft creates a digital key (hash) from that one and saves it either to microsoft online account (when available) or to a local store.
So any bios update can delete this. Fantastic concept.

The UEFI tables where this data is stored are not supposed to be wiped by motherboard firmware updates. Here your motherboard vendor is at fault.