Interesting, thanks. I hadn't seen that. I see no reason why there
should be a difference between the rule for one operating system and
another, and I suspect that the difference between these two Microsoft
pages is that the one you quote is older than one I did. Also, they
were almost certainly written by two different people, each with a
different idea.
That is exactly right, and I said much the same thing here many times
before the article I quoted appeared.
By the way, in the article you quote, one of the last paragraphs says
"Understanding that end-users, over time, upgrade their computers with
different components, Microsoft views the CPU as the one remaining
base component that still defines that original computer. Because the
motherboard contains the CPU, when the motherboard is replaced for
reasons other than defect, a new computer is essentially created.
Therefore, the original OEM cannot be expected to support this new
computer that they did not manufacture."
That says that changing the motherboard means that the OEM will very
likely no longer support the computer and *that* is why they consider
it a new computer. However, it also implies that it's the OEM, not
Microsoft, who decides whether it's a new computer, and if the
particular OEM will support it after the motherboard change, it is not
a new computer.
So, even in Microsoft's view, a computer that you build yourself and
install a store-bought OEM copy of Windows on it *can* be considered
the same computer even after a motherboard change, if the OEM (in this
case, you) wants it to be.
