I recently had my tablet stolen (or I just lost it) and it got me wondering, in the event of a lost or stolen windows activated device can Microsoft trace or track the device? I'm not talking about the "Find my device" option that users must enable and tie to a microsoft account, I'm talking about a deeper method of tracking.When contacting Microsoft and reading different posts on their help forums I'm a little lost since everything points towards they cant. I don't believe that to be truthful or accurate.
If I have a windows device and I reformat the drive and reinstall windows 10 I'm not asked to enter a product key, the process is not taken care of via authentication once fully installed. If this is the case that means Microsoft must have a database of all windows devices. This database wouldn't only contain the microsoft account associated with the install but an actual hardware identifier... So, if Microsoft does have this database than why wouldn't they be able to simply identify the IP address associated with the device? I'm sure everytime the WIndows Update runs it validates the device is the authorized for the install.
BY the way, I'm not looking at this as a conspiracy theory or thinking Microsoft should be helping out law enforcement, it's more of general curiosity.
If I have a windows device and I reformat the drive and reinstall windows 10 I'm not asked to enter a product key, the process is not taken care of via authentication once fully installed. If this is the case that means Microsoft must have a database of all windows devices. This database wouldn't only contain the microsoft account associated with the install but an actual hardware identifier... So, if Microsoft does have this database than why wouldn't they be able to simply identify the IP address associated with the device? I'm sure everytime the WIndows Update runs it validates the device is the authorized for the install.
BY the way, I'm not looking at this as a conspiracy theory or thinking Microsoft should be helping out law enforcement, it's more of general curiosity.