Product Key HELP!

BennettWHU · 4 Jun 2012 at 07:53

Clov!s said:
Your not supposed to but you still can.

I have the product key from my old laptop on my new system i have, windows 7 home premium.

So I can still use the product key from my laptop on a new system as long as I reformat my laptop's HDD and buy a Windows 7 CD?

Saundie · 4 Jun 2012 at 08:17

BennettWHU said:
So I can still use the product key from my laptop on a new system as long as I reformat my laptop's HDD and buy a Windows 7 CD?

Not within the terms of the license agreement, no. OEM licenses are not transferable. If you're going to buy a copy of Windows 7, the logical thing to do would be to use it on your new system and leave your laptop alone. Using the product key from your laptop on any other system is no more legit than using a crack. This has been covered by many other people in this thread in great detail; there is no way around it if you wish to be legitimately licensed.

There is an alternative option available to you. You could download the Windows 7 installation media and install it in evaluation/trial mode. No product key is required to do this. When you have the money to buy your copy of Windows 7, you can then purchase the relevant edition and use the product key to activate your installation. You can use Windows 7 for up to 120 days without activating it with your product key.

BennettWHU · 4 Jun 2012 at 11:16

Saundie said:
Not within the terms of the license agreement, no. OEM licenses are not transferable. If you're going to buy a copy of Windows 7, the logical thing to do would be to use it on your new system and leave your laptop alone. Using the product key from your laptop on any other system is no more legit than using a crack. This has been covered by many other people in this thread in great detail; there is no way around it if you wish to be legitimately licensed.

There is an alternative option available to you. You could download the Windows 7 installation media and install it in evaluation/trial mode. No product key is required to do this. When you have the money to buy your copy of Windows 7, you can then purchase the relevant edition and use the product key to activate your installation. You can use Windows 7 for up to 120 days without activating it with your product key.

I'm going to leave my laptop alone. I just wanted to know if this method was possible. Now I know it isn't, I'll leave it at that. However, I do want to know if it's possible to just buy a product key and borrow a friends Windows 7 disc to install the OS and then use my bought product key to activate it?

Duke · 4 Jun 2012 at 11:21

Yes as long as its the right version, but you can download the DVD anyway (legally).

Deleted member 77746 · 4 Jun 2012 at 12:56

BennettWHU said:
I'm building a new system and I'm slightly angry with how expensive Windows 7 is. I have been looking around the internet and they're all ranging from £115 to £200. People use illegal versions of Windows 7 but I don't want to do this as I want everything on my PC to be legitimate. Anyway, onto my - maybe silly - plan.

I bought a laptop from Dell a while ago. It's an Inspiron N5030 and it came with Windows 7 Home Premium already installed. I know it is possible to format the HDD and completely delete the OS and not just reformat from an image they made in the factory over at Dell. If I can somehow get the product key for this copy of Windows 7 (because I technically own it) on my laptop - can I format my HDD, buy a Windows 7 disc, and install Windows 7 on my new HDD in my new system and use the product key from my laptop on my new system?

I'll later install an OS on my laptop when I've got the money.

You might as well use an illigal OS. You will break the EULA if you even try to attempt to put the serial key from your Dell to your new PC.

Options.
1) Run trial software
2) Run free OS's (Linux e.t.c)
3) Buy a new OEM W7.

PS, do some shopping for W7 OEM prices.

Pho · 4 Jun 2012 at 12:59

mrbell1984 said:
You might as well use an illigal OS. You will break the EULA if you even try to attempt to put the serial key from your Dell to your new PC.

PS, do some shopping for W7 OEM prices.

Using W7 OEM on a build for yourself is breaking the license too

.

Deleted member 77746 · 4 Jun 2012 at 13:07

Pho said:
Using W7 OEM on a build for yourself is breaking the license too .

The stores selling the OEM shouldn't be selling the copies to any tom, dick n harry only registerd system builders.

Candidates for this exam are IT professionals who resell hardware with Genuine preinstalled Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, or Windows Small Business Server 2011. They install Microsoft Office 2010 and provide value added services. Candidates should have a minimum of one year of experience managing day-to-day issues involving desktop and/or server deployment.

(Exam 70-684) - OEM Reseller
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Captain · 4 Jun 2012 at 17:19

BennettWHU said:
So I can still use the product key from my laptop on a new system as long as I reformat my laptop's HDD and buy a Windows 7 CD?

You dont need to buy windows 7.

there are loads of official microsoft windows 7 ISO files about, just use one of them.

BennettWHU · 4 Jun 2012 at 17:33

I don't want to use OEM software anyway because I'll upgrade my motherboard one day and this will force me to have to buy another OEM version of Windows 7 or buy the retail copy. I'll just buy the retail copy and then I own it for life then. I've heard Windows 8 isn't very good anyway.