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The only benefit I've seen to having a Microsoft account is that I don't have to remember a cd key anymore if I have to reinstall... other than that, what was it actually used for?

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They use machine id, shouldn’t need the key to reactivate on reinstall.

But you can move your key across devices -- just de-register the old machine and register on the new one.

I bought a Windows Pro license a decade ago (maybe for Win7) and I'm still using the same license for Windows 11 on a new PC.

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