Can hardware components be changed and upgraded?
Product Activation is able to tolerate a certain degree of change in a hardware configuration by allowing a current hash value to have a degree of difference from the hash value that was originally activated. As a result, users can change their hardware without the product believing it is on a different PC than the one it was activated on. If the user completely overhauls the hardware making substantial hardware changes (even over long periods of time), reactivation may be required. In that case, users may need to contact to contact a Microsoft customer service representative by telephone to reactivate.
Yes. Activation will tolerate a degree of change in your hardware configuration from when the OS was originally activated. You can change some hardware without the product believing it is on a different PC to the one it was activated on. If you completely upgrade the hardware by making substantial hardware changes, even over a long period of time, reactivation may be required. In that case, you can try to reactivate over the internet or contact Microsoft by telephone if need be. How many components can I change before reactivating? Activation uses a voting mechanism. There are 10 hardware characteristics used in creating the HWID: Display Adapter SCSI Adapter IDE Adapter Network Adapter MAC Address RAM Amount Range (i.e. 0-64mb, 64-128mb, etc) Processor Type Processor Serial Number Hard Drive Device Type Hard Drive Volume Serial Number CD-ROM/CD-RW/DVD-ROM Each characteristic is worth one vote, except the network card (NIC), which is worth three votes. When the current HWID is compared
A. Product Activation is able to tolerate a certain degree of change in a hardware configuration by allowing a current hash value to have a degree of difference from the hash value that was originally activated. As a result, users can change their hardware without the product believing it is on a different PC than the one it was activated on. If the user completely overhauls the hardware making substantial hardware changes (even over long periods of time), reactivation may be required. In that case, users may need to contact a EnergyGauge customer service representative by telephone to reactivate.
I wouldn’t worry about it to much unless they all decide to upgrade right now. After 3 months the current activations should age out of the Activation Servers Database and allow for additional installs up to the number of licenses you have. In other words if you activated it 10 times within 3 months you couldn’t activate it again without at the least having to call them or until it ages out of the database and that should be 3 months unless Microsoft changed it.
Product Activation is able to tolerate a certain degree of change in a hardware configuration by allowing a current hash value to have a degree of difference from the hash value that was originally activated. As a result, users can change their hardware without the product believing it is on a different PC than the one it was activated on. If the user completely overhauls the hardware making substantial hardware changes (even over long periods of time), reactivation may be required. In that case, users may need to contact to contact a Microsoft customer service representative by telephone to reactivate. How does product activation determine tolerance? In other words, how many components of the PC must change before I am required to reactivate? Common changes to hardware such as upgrading a video card, adding a second hard disk drive, adding RAM or upgrading a CD-ROM device will not require the system to be reactivated. Specifically, product activation determines tolerance through a vot
