I am looking to purchase a license for Windows but am unclear on where to do this. I am specifically interested in a retail key license. I was initially considering purchasing a license from the Microsoft Store, but there were a few online posts deterred me from using this source, primarily because it a digital license to my understanding.

I’ve read a few posts that say how digital keys are tied to the motherboard, similar to OEM licenses. The whole reason I want a retail license is so it is not tied to my motherboard, and I can transfer it if I replace the motherboard at some point or build a new PC later on. It looks like the MS store only offers digital licenses though from what I can see. Or maybe number of transfers in a digital license is limited (it is unclear to me)?

There was a post on MS’s Answers forum saying it is a digital license tied to my account, not a key license. I’m okay with a license tied to my account, but he had difficulties actually getting it to work since it wasn’t a key that was simply emailed to him or something like that, so I’m hesitant to purchase a digital license from the Microsoft store and would rather purchase a key license that I can just type in at installation or first startup.

So I am interested in a legit source to purchase a retail key license, not an OEM license and not a digital license. But it is unclear where to actually do this. Any clarity on confusion on my part or suggestions for where to purchase such a license would be greatly appreciated?

I’m not sure what other community to post this question in so I hope it is okay to post here.