I've done a redeploy to new hardware with Macrium before, but it was from Windows 10 to a new Windows 10 self-built computer. So, I had the Windows 10 license to enter when the new machine booted and required activation on new hardware. The current scenario is a store bought computer that will have Windows 11 and  my old PC is Windows 10. I want to redeploy and then upgrade to Windows 11. My old PC is not capable of running Windows 10. So I have some questions about how to proceed.
1. Do I need to run through basic setup of the new Windows 11 PC to get the Windows 11 license associated with the new computer/motherboard first?
2. When I clone the Windows 10 image to the new PC, I will then run redeploy to new hardware to fix driver issues.
3. At that point, when the PC boots on new hardware, do I need to license the new computer with a temporary Windows 10 license before I do the upgrade to Windows 11? I was going to use a Windows 7 license from an old PC as I've heard this still works for activation of Windows 10.
4. Do the in-place upgrade to Windows 11 and the license from Step 1 will be active.

Comments?  Thank you!

I'm afraid I can't say much with any authority about Windows licensing these days. In some cases, it seems a lot more relaxed and at other times it chokes. A problem can be if the license you are trying to move is a so-called OEM rather than retail license which means it is totally restricted to the machine that has it. However, how much of a sticking point this can be seems varied.
I definitely would run through the basic setup of the new W11 machine and make an image of it. If anything goes amiss you can fall back to it.
Other things to consider:
Is the old PC W10 installation a 64 bit one? If it's 32 bit then you do not want to use it.
Is the PC old using the old BIOS  rather than UEFI? If so, this may help: 
https://knowledgebase.macrium.com/display/KNOW80/Restoring+an+MBR+System+image+to+UEFI-GPT

+x

 

Seekforever - 15 November 2023 7:02 PM

I'm afraid I can't say much with any authority about Windows licensing these days. In some cases, it seems a lot more relaxed and at other times it chokes. A problem can be if the license you are trying to move is a so-called OEM rather than retail license which means it is totally restricted to the machine that has it. However, how much of a sticking point this can be seems varied.
I definitely would run through the basic setup of the new W11 machine and make an image of it. If anything goes amiss you can fall back to it.
Other things to consider:
Is the old PC W10 installation a 64 bit one? If it's 32 bit then you do not want to use it.
Is the PC old using the old BIOS  rather than UEFI? If so, this may help: 
https://knowledgebase.macrium.com/display/KNOW80/Restoring+an+MBR+System+image+to+UEFI-GPT

Both PCs are 64-bit and I understand how to deal with restoring a BIOS image to a UEFI PC.  My main concern is booting the new machine with the old Windows 10 installation/clone. Microsoft will sense that it's not licensed and I didn't know how that would affect the licensing after I upgrade in-place to Windows 11. I would THINK that since the PC is licensed for Windows 11 and I ran through the setup on the new machine) that once I get it upgraded, it will pick up that license in terms of validity. I suppose this is NOT directly a Macrium question. But somebody must have done this - redeploy to new hardware followed by an upgrade.