The trick is to get them to play nicely afterward

Every now and then you’ll want to make upgrades to your system hardware. The most common component to upgrade is a hard drive to a solid-state drive, or a shiny new graphics processing unit (GPU). Sometimes, however, you may want to replace your motherboard, the part of your computer that helps all the other components communicate.

Upgrading a motherboard isn’t that hard. But activating Windows 10 and getting it to work properly with your new motherboard is another story. Here’s how to replace a motherboard without reinstalling Windows 10.

The problem with replacing a motherboard while on Windows 10 stems from Microsoft’s licensing. Or rather, misunderstanding how Windows 10 licensing works when you want to do a major upgrade.