Re: [Trisquel-users] Does windows 10 put data on your mainboard?

[dguthrie]

The so-called license on new Windows computers with it pre-installed store  
the key in the BIOS so people could not sell the license key after they get a  
new computer. However buying it at retail will not do this unless the Windows  
installer uses some (even worse) toxic magic.
The BIOS is proprietary though so the question is not what Microsoft can do  
to your mainboard but what Intel can do with their omnipotent spying engine  
and handy remotely exploitable backdoor: https://libreboot.org/faq/#intelme
If MS could actually modify the firmware (rather than manufacturer developing  
BIOS and including the key) this would be a good thing because it could  
possibly be reversed-engineered so Libreboot developers could modify the  
BIOS!