Windows 7 - can it go on a new computer?

[barrydrake]

Hi there .... I have a secondhand laptop which had Windows 7 Starter on it and therefore has a valid Win 7 Starter product key. I will not be using Windows 7 on it as I use Ubuntu. I have the Windows 7 installer disk that came with the laptop and I have installed it onto a spare Sata Drive that I can put into a trayless caddy on my pcspecialist desktop. So far so good. It works just fine alongside Ubuntu which I have on a different hard drive, but it will stop in 30 days unless I activate it.

Question: Will Microsoft allow me to activate it as it will obviously be running on different hardware from the original activation. I ask, because I did this with Windows XP and activation worked OK even though my Windows XP was supplied on a Dell computer on which I no longer use Windows. Please understand that I only want to use Windows on one computer.

Any thoughts on this?

Regards, Barry Drake.

 

[Rakk]

If its an OEM version of windows, then it should be tied to the PC with which it was bought.

It may be possible to get it on a different machine, but you're not really supposed to be able to (as in, I bet some have discovered a way to do it, however, it will be breaking numerous of Microsofts rules and regulations for using their OS and I would certainly advise against it).

 

[barrydrake]

Yeah .... I imagine Microsoft has it all tied up legally. If it works for me, I would do it in all good conscience. Why? Because I consider that in buying a computer that has an OEM product key, I have purchased a single user license for Windows 7 Starter. As I am no longer using it on the computer with which it was supplied, I believe it is morally right for Microsoft to allow me to use the product on a different machine. My expectation is that as soon as I attempt to activate the product I will be locked out and can no longer use it at all. Actually as an Ubuntu user, this will not bother me a lot - if I ever need to use Windows 7, I can re-install and have a thirty day period before activation is enforced. If there is any interest, I will post the result here. As I have said, whatever the legalities, it worked OK with XP; I just anticipate that Microsoft will have tightened this aspect.

 

[Rakk]

Because I consider that in buying a computer that has an OEM product key, I have purchased a single user license for Windows 7 Starter. As I am no longer using it on the computer with which it was supplied, I believe it is morally right for Microsoft to allow me to use the product on a different machine.

However the OEM versions are always linked to a specific machine which is why they are cheaper than the retail license versions which can be moved between machines as you wish (as long as you're only using it on one machine at a time), therefore they may not consider it morally right to allow you to use it on another machine at all, on the grounds that it was cheaper for a reason.

 

[vanthus]

Surprisingly, Microsoft is not strict about making sure you obey the terms of their software license. They are often happy to help you activate a copy of Windows on a new or upgraded computer.
Install Windows on the computer and insert the activation key as normal. When Windows starts and you connect to the Internet you might receive an error message letting you know that your copy of Windows is not genuine. Click on the text link that lets you solve the problem online and try to activate the key again. When it fails once more, you are given the chance to call into Microsoft support.
I'm assuming your going to uninstall it from the old computer,
they wont allow you to use it on both.