In the following I discuss how one licensed Windows detect that it is installed on one machine while TurboTax often fails to do that .
The problem I had is that when I updated the TurboTax Premium on the machine whose Windows 10 was restored from a backup copy, I had to enter the license key again. I did this because one application I downloaded and installed messed up Windows. I have already used the license key 3 times on one machine. Turbotax is now working.
The license of Windows is effective even if I restore a System Image backed up by changing the hard drive. I read a few articles stating how Windows detect that it is reinstalled on the same machine. The following page contains useful information:
I gave the URL of the page mentioned, and it can be accessed, but I get the warning
"Your post has been changed because invalid HTML was found in the message body. The invalid HTML has been removed."
"Windows is using several pieces of data to determine whether or not the pc it is running on is the pc it was activated for. Microsoft doesn’t give any details publicly so nobody really knows.
"But we know if you replace a HDD or GPU or some RAM while leaving the other components in place you will not be forced to reactivate windows. If you change a lot of components at once or replace the whole computer you will have to reactivate windows which means the product key is then tied to the new hardware.
"What I can tell you is that several components in your computer have serial and model numbers (two computers having the same model GPU doesn’t tell you that they are the same computer but if they have a different model the OS can tell it’s a different computer) and your Ethernet and/or Wifi will have a MAC address that should be unique to that network device. Things like TPM (trusted platform module) also should provide identification of the PC. I am not sure if you can also use behavioural metrics to tell two PCs apart (as in making the computer perform some specific operations while monitoring some metrics)."
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I think this method is technically too complex for TurboTax to adopt unless Microsoft provides the function to tell whether the machine has been changed or not.
If possible, I want to know when the license key must be reentered even the Turbotax is restored on the same machine.
Last year, I used the license key 5 times on the same machine. Then a new license key was given for free.
