Al Drake wrote, On 7/2/2014 5:51 PM:

Over the years I've read about so many ideas of what is really going
on and I don't doubt what your saying is true but where do these
conclusion come from. Yeas ago I read a heated debate involving an MSMVP
stating that replacing the mobo was all it took to make that system
ineligible for activation. I've never seen anyone cite their claims with
a link.



Well MSFT isn't going to make their algorithm public for obvious reasons.

But...the book 'Windows 7 In Depth' written by well known Windows
authors, Robert Cowart and Brian Knittel, has a section that covered
some of the details.

qp
The actual algorithm that Microsoft uses is not disclosed, but we do
know the weighting of components is as follows, from highest to lowest:

1. Motherboard (and CPU)
2. Hard drive
3. Network interface card (NIC)
4. Graphics card
5. RAM

If you just add a new hard disk or add new RAM, there is no issue. If
you create an image of your Windows 7 installation on another hard disk
and swap that hard disk into the system and boot from it, or if you
replace all your RAM and reboot, WAT[1] gets triggered and checks to see
whether you must reactivate Windows 7.

In theory, chances that you'll get stung by any of this are not great.
It was widely expected that the only users who'd need to worry about
reactivation would be users who'd buy a preinstalled system, image the
hard disk or try to move the hard disk to a newer, faster computer, or
perform a motherboard upgrade using a preinstalled copy of Windows 7.

Unfortunately, in practice users have been forced to reactivate after
relatively modest hardware changes.
/qp
[1] Windows Activation Technology

Iirc, mobo changes on OEM hardware (when Win7 is OEM pre-installed or
System Builder version) can create both online and phone activation
issues unlike use of retail Win7 media which may fail online activation
post a mobo change but can confidently be phone activated.


--
...winston
msft mvp consumer apps