New Windows 10 keys come with replacement Dell motherboards.

The Dell tech that does onsite warranty repair for us said he has a huge number of these already.

Guessing that anybody in the USA that is selling Windows 10 keys on eBay is actually selling these replacement keys.

That being said, you can also still upgrade to Windows 10 from 7/8/8.1 for free straight from MS.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

Also, if you want keys to be transferable, you should be logging into your computer with your Microsoft account.
When you do that instead of just a local account, that key gets put on your MS account and from what I have seen / personally experienced is that those keys are then transferable to whatever system you replace the old
one with.

I think you may still be able to transfer the key, as long as it is a retail one. I had to access my Microsoft account and remove the key from the old PC from the site. Then I entered my original Windows 8 product key (which I had before the free migration to Win10) when installing Windows 10 and after installation it somehow activated. So you can try that before buying a new key.

In any case, the whole key transfer process is completely inane in this day and age, I wonder how long Microsoft is going to hold on to this outdated business model. It's like they are asking you to pirate it!

It is indeed a retail license.. I was using it with an offline account but made a microsoft account just to link the license with and I guess I should now be able to theoretically activate it on a new pc once I remove it from the old one?

This shit is just so dumb and irritating...

appiah4 wrote:

It is indeed a retail license.. I was using it with an offline account but made a microsoft account just to link the license with and I guess I should now be able to theoretically activate it on a new pc once I remove it from the old one?

This shit is just so dumb and irritating...

Retail keys are transferable. In the worst case, you'll need to call in and have an MS agent void the old hardware profile so you can load on the new machine.