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Please read this carefully before marking as duplicate. I have tried to do my homework and could not find a definitive answer for this specific situation. For example this and several others are about upgrades, not OEM Windows 10 installations.

I have a Windows 10 Dell laptop purchased in October, 2015. To the best of my knowledge, it is an original Windows 10 installation and not an upgrade of a Windows 7, 8 or 8.1 key.

I would like to use the "Remove Everything" reset option in Windows 10 to remove all drivers, software, user accounts, settings, etc. I had a bad experience trying to fresh install another OEM computer since Windows 10 has changed activation rules. Therefore I would like to know if doing the "Remove Everything" reset will land me in a bad situation with activation or if everything will go smoothly.

I still have the PC in an unactivated, factory state so I can do whatever needs to be done. Any help is appreciated and I have to assume that many other people are going to have the same question.

Community
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kobejohn
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    Of course it will. "since Windows 10 has changed activation rules." - No...No it has not. What changes did happen are 100% transparent to us as end users. – Ramhound Nov 19 '15 at 11:49

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It will require reactivation after "Remove everything". So prepare Your product key before You do such remove. If Your license is valid, it should activate without any problem.

NoAngel
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  • Thanks for letting me know the key needs to be recorded first. I also guess the reset will be fine but after my bad experience with an upgraded OEM key I am looking for more definitive evidence. Do you have any evidence that OEM Windows 10 will reactivate successfully? – kobejohn Nov 19 '15 at 06:36
  • I don't have. All Windows OEM licences I used were preinstalled. There was no reinstall, just recovery partition. OEM license is linked to hardware. If You change motherboard, OEM license will be invalid. Windows 10 added a new feature, it sends information about Your hardware to license center, if You do clean install on the same hardware, it should activate automatically without entering the key. You may still need a key, in case it will not activate just call MS support, they ask for part of key, tell them You trying to reinstall OS on same hardware, but cannot activate, they should help. – NoAngel Nov 19 '15 at 08:32
  • Thank you for the extra info. I'm still not confident enough to risk losing the license but if a media reinstall will work for an oem license, then the reset will probably work. If you have a link showing that it works for a media reinstall, it would be nice to add it to your answer for other users. – kobejohn Nov 19 '15 at 10:11