What HWID lock does in the first place
When you activate your Nimbus license, the loader computes a SHA-256 hash of stable hardware identifiers from your PC — the motherboard serial, primary disk serial, and Windows MachineGuid — and binds your license key to that hash. From then on, the key only works on that exact PC.
This is the thing that stops resellers from buying one key and splitting it across ten Telegram subscribers. It also means the day you change hardware, sign-in fails with "HWID mismatch" until you reset.
If you want the deep technical detail on what's in the hash and what isn't, we wrote that up in /docs/hwid-and-licenses/how-hwid-lock-works. This post is the practical "I'm moving to a new PC, walk me through it" guide.
When you need a reset
You need to reset your HWID whenever the stable hardware fingerprint changes. The common triggers:
- New motherboard. This is the single largest contributor to the hash. A board swap always requires a reset.
- New primary disk. Cloning Windows to a new SSD changes the disk serial in the hash.
- Fresh Windows install. A clean install regenerates the MachineGuid, even on the same hardware.
- Moving to a new PC entirely. Obviously.
- Using a different account profile on the same PC, in some edge cases (rare — MachineGuid is per-install, not per-user).
You don't need a reset for:
- Adding RAM, GPU, or PSU.
- Adding a secondary drive.
- Reinstalling drivers.
- Windows updates (cumulative or feature updates).
- Changing your monitor or peripherals.
If you're unsure, sign in once on the new setup. If it works, you're fine. If it shows "HWID mismatch", follow the reset flow below.
The self-serve reset flow
Go to /dashboard/hwid.
You'll see your active HWID slot, the date it was bound, and a Reset HWID button. Click it. You'll be prompted to confirm — the confirmation is intentional so accidental clicks don't burn your reset quota.
Once confirmed:
- The current HWID binding is cleared from our database.
- Your next loader sign-in on any PC rebinds the key to that new PC's hash.
- The new binding becomes your active slot.
That's it. Done in under 30 seconds, no ticket, no waiting.
The cooldown rules
To stop abuse — specifically, the "rotate HWID every game" pattern that ban-evaders use — resets are rate-limited. The current rules:
- One free reset every 15 hours for active subs.
- Up to three resets per 30-day window without admin review.
- Beyond three in 30 days, the reset is queued for a quick human review (usually < 1 hour during peak hours).
The cooldown countdown is visible on /dashboard/hwid — if you click reset within the 15-hour window, the button shows the time remaining instead of firing.
The cooldown exists for one reason: a key that can be rebound 50 times a day is functionally not HWID-locked, which means resellers can run it across many machines. The 15-hour rule kills that pattern without inconveniencing real customers, who reset maybe twice a year.
Walking through the migration
Here's the full "moving to a new rig" flow, end to end:
1. On the old PC, sign out
Open the Nimbus loader on the old PC. Click Sign out in the header (or quit the loader entirely — sign-out is graceful, but quit works too).
Sign-out wipes session.dat, config.json, and
remembered_creds.dat from the loader directory. The splash
replaces the protected UI — important if you're handing the PC to
someone else, screen-recording, or screenshotting.
2. On the new PC, sign in normally
Install the loader on the new PC (same flow as your first install — see /help). Run it. Enter your email and password.
If the old PC's HWID is already cleared (you reset before moving), this just works — the key rebinds to the new PC's hash and you're in.
If you didn't reset first, sign-in fails with "HWID mismatch".
3. If sign-in fails, reset from the dashboard
Open getnimbus.net/dashboard/hwid in any browser (phone is fine — the dashboard is mobile-friendly). Click Reset HWID, confirm, wait ~5 seconds.
Go back to the new PC's loader. Click Sign in again. The key rebinds. You're in.
4. (Optional) Use "Remember me on this device"
On the new PC's sign-in dialog, tick "Remember me on this device" before signing in. This saves your email + password (AES encrypted with a machine-bound key) so future cold launches of the loader pre-fill the dialog and you click Sign in once.
It does not auto-sign-you-in silently — by founder policy every cold launch surfaces the dialog. It just means you don't retype your credentials each time.
If you ever lose the PC or want to revoke that saved credential, Sign out wipes it.
Edge cases that need a ticket
A small number of HWID issues need a human. The common ones:
- Suspected stolen key. Someone activated on a PC that isn't yours and you got locked out. Open a ticket — we can see the binding history, revoke, and rebind to your real machine.
- Hardware died and you don't have the old PC to sign out cleanly. Self-serve reset works for this too, but if the key is in a weird state (e.g. a paid-then-banned-then-restored cycle), it might error. Ticket it.
- Cross-account migration. You bought a key on
old@email.comand want it transferred tonew@email.com. We do these by hand — open a ticket from both addresses (so we can verify both). - Multiple resets in 24 hours. If you've burned through your cooldown legitimately (e.g. you replaced a dying drive, then a dying board, then did a fresh install on the same day), open a ticket and we'll flag a one-off override.
Open tickets from /support or directly in Discord. Peak-hours first-response is under 30 minutes.
FAQ
Will resetting my HWID lose my settings?
No. Settings live in your loader's local config, not the license record. Sign in on the new PC and your config defaults to "fresh" (because it's a fresh install on a new disk), but no setting was deleted from anything you control.
Can I have two PCs bound at once?
The default policy is one active binding per key. If you genuinely want a desktop + laptop pair (some customers do — train and play at home), open a ticket. We don't currently sell a multi-PC tier, but we can sometimes grant a second slot for active subs.
Does a HWID reset cost anything?
No. It's a built-in license feature, not an upsell. The cooldown is the only limit, and the cooldown is to stop abuse — not to upsell you on faster resets.
Does HWID lock protect me from getting banned?
No. HWID lock is a business control — it stops resellers and key-sharers. It does not affect the in-game anti-cheat at all. If your account gets banned for cheating, the HWID lock doesn't help; that's the refund policy territory, and bans are not on the replacement list.
What happens if my new PC's HWID hash matches an old one?
In theory possible (e.g. you wiped Windows but kept the same board
- disk). In that case the loader just signs in without prompting a reset — same hash, same binding, no work for you.
Bottom line
Moving Nimbus to a new PC is a two-step process:
- Click Reset HWID on /dashboard/hwid.
- Sign in on the new machine.
If you hit a wall, open a ticket or ping Discord — we'll unstick you, usually inside an hour.
