Can you use a generic Windows 7 DVD with an OEM key?

SiD the Turtle

SiD the Turtle

SiD the Turtle

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Hi chaps,

Back in the days of XP if you had a PC with a license key sticker and a license, you couldn't just install using any old XP disc, you had to have a vendor specific disc as activation was tied to something on the disc.

Is it a similar story with 7? I just bought a nettop PC and it's loaded with junk demos so I was thinking of doing a clean reinstall.
 
I did this with my Acer, used my Win 7 Retail disc and installed with the license code on the laptop.
 
RJC said:
I did this with my Acer, used my Win 7 Retail disc and installed with the license code on the laptop.
Click to expand...

I tried this with a COA license key, it was a WinXP Pro OEM License key (located on bottom of laptop) Used a retail version of WinXP Pro and it didn't like it.

However the license key was a manufacture specific. Dont know how much of a differance that makes.
 
Schizophonic said:
I tried this with a COA license key, it was a WinXP Pro OEM License key (located on bottom of laptop) Used a retail version of WinXP Pro and it didn't like it.

However the license key was a manufacture specific. Dont know how much of a differance that makes.
Click to expand...

Yeah that's right.

Windows XP Pro OEM will need an OEM Pro disc, ditto for Home OEM, Home Retail, and Pro Retail.

Vista and Win 7 will use any disc and the 'features' are disabled/enabled depending on the key.
 
It is possible to use an ordinary OEM serial not associated with any specific manufacturer. However, if the oem is for example a Dell then one would need the Dell Windows 7 disk as this has the SLIC 2.1 info on it - which must match the Bios Dell slic 2.1
 
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