Licence tied to the motherboard
- The licence is now tied to the hardware rather than the Windows ID: to an anonymised fingerprint of the motherboard (raw values never leave the PC). Reinstalling Windows or replacing a drive, graphics card or memory no longer uses up a transfer; a new motherboard or another PC is a transfer (up to two). For motherboards without real serial numbers, the drive is used, then the Windows ID.
- Codes that are already activated switch to the new binding automatically at the first renewal, without using up a transfer.