Problems with cloning Win8.1 w/Bing, and activation

[VirtualLarry]

I have two identical Asus laptops. I pulled the HDDs, and installed SSDs, and put Win7 on them. Then I changed my mind, grabbed one of the original HDDs, an Apricorn "SATA wire", and their cloning software, and I cloned the HDD onto each SSD on each laptop.

Neither laptop has been connected to the internet.

The first laptop, under Control Panel | System, shows as "Activated".

The second laptop, shows "Not yet Activated".

WTF?

I thought that each laptop would auto-activate. It's an Asus copy of Windows, on two Asus machines.

Are Win8.1 w/Bing installations, unique to each machine? That seems very inefficient from an OEM mfg perspective.

I know that with Dell OEM copies of XP, and existing installations, that the discs would work on any PC with a Dell mobo that came with XP, and HDDs with existing installations could be transferred between machines with Dell mobos, without losing their activation status.

 

[Mushkins]

I'm confused as to what you actually did.

So the original laptop you created the image from shows up as activated, but you applied that image to the second laptop and it shows not activated?

If so, that's working as intended. Windows activation has been tied to a hardware profile since late Windows Vista. The first one is Activated because the hardware profile matches. The second one is Not Activated because its detecting a considerable hardware change and cannot connect to the internet to reactivate. The hardware doesn't just have to be the same model, but the same revision with the same embedded identification information and everything.

Since its cloned, both machines also have the same Windows key associated with it, which if they are OEM keys the second you take them online one of them is going to be forcibly deactivated. You'll have to go into Computer Properties and manually enter the second windows key to keep them both legit.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Since its cloned, both machines also have the same Windows key associated with it, which if they are OEM keys the second you take them online one of them is going to be forcibly deactivated. You'll have to go into Computer Properties and manually enter the second windows key to keep them both legit.

I thought that since Windows 8, the key is embedded in the BIOS.

 

[Mushkins]

I thought that since Windows 8, the key is embedded in the BIOS.

It's both. There's *a* key embedded in the BIOS. When you install windows using OEM media it pulls that key and holds it in the OS software. If you cloned the drive, it's not pulling that key from BIOS, it's using the one that was already held in the OS software that you cloned. If you have the OEM key on a sticker on the laptop it's just a few clicks in Windows 8 to change it from the cloned key back to the proper key for that laptop. Right Click Computer > Properties > and pick Change Product Key under Windows Activation.

But if you do this, it will still say Not Activated until you take it online to reactivate, as the existing activation information is still associated with a hardware profile generated from the other laptop.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Well, I checked both the BIOS product key, and the Windows 8.1 product key, and they were:
1) Unique between machines, and
2) The Windows 8.1 key / IE key, matched the BIOS key on each machine.

Yet, one of the machines showed "Activated" after cloning, without going online, and one did not.

Both machines did show "Activated" after I let each one go online for the first time.

(Wanted to make sure that the product keys were unique for each machine before I did that though.)

 

[Mushkins]

Well, I checked both the BIOS product key, and the Windows 8.1 product key, and they were:
1) Unique between machines, and
2) The Windows 8.1 key / IE key, matched the BIOS key on each machine.

Yet, one of the machines showed "Activated" after cloning, without going online, and one did not.

Both machines did show "Activated" after I let each one go online for the first time.

(Wanted to make sure that the product keys were unique for each machine before I did that though.)

One matched the original hardware profile information (the one you made the image from) and thus registered as activated without checking against MS. Working as intended