OK, I bought a new computer with windows 7 pro pre-loaded. Can I legally load the OS on my older computer with XP.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

No, i`m afraid.
I license is for one computer only.

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With each crime and every kindness we birth our future.

I just discovered that up to but not including XP, microsoft allowed a site license and you could load the OS on up to three computers. Now the OS is not even transferable, like if my computer with win 7 dies I still can't load the OS, for instance, on my laptop with Vista.

I can understand why some folks really dislike windows and will go out of their way to use a different OS.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

I just discovered that up to but not including XP, microsoft allowed a site license and you could load the OS on up to three computers. Now the OS is not even transferable, like if my computer with win 7 dies I still can't load the OS, for instance, on my laptop with Vista.

I can understand why some folks really dislike windows and will go out of their way to use a different OS.

Not saying that you are wrong, but if I have a computer failure and build a new boxen, I sure as hell ought to be able to continue to use the copy of the OS I already own.
With XP, I believe one time I had to call to get a new key code because before the rig died it had trashed the OS and I had to reload it too many times.

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

According to the microsoft web site the deal is that if a computer is sold with one of their products as the OS it is only legal with that specific computer and can't be transferred to another for any reason. I think it stinks and that an individual should be allowed to install a purchased OS on all personal computers in his/her home. They say you can purchase a limited site license for up to three computers, but it ain't cheap.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

According to the microsoft web site the deal is that if a computer is sold with one of their products as the OS it is only legal with that specific computer and can't be transferred to another for any reason. I think it stinks and that an individual should be allowed to install a purchased OS on all personal computers in his/her home. They say you can purchase a limited site license for up to three computers, but it ain't cheap.

I can accept the one computer license bit. I have a valid copy of the OS for each of my 9 computers. My problem is if a computer dies or is upgraded with a new CPU, for example, I should continue to be able to use the same OS.
Now, there might be some difference between purchasing the OS preloaded on a prebuilt computer, and purchasing the OS itself to load on a computer one has built themselves. Dunno.

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

Bob, have you considered buying a Windows 7 OEM disk for that PC?

http://www.directron.com/gfc02050.html

Cheers.

According to the microsoft web site the deal is that if a computer is sold with one of their products as the OS it is only legal with that specific computer and can't be transferred to another for any reason. I think it stinks and that an individual should be allowed to install a purchased OS on all personal computers in his/her home. They say you can purchase a limited site license for up to three computers, but it ain't cheap.

I can accept the one computer license bit. I have a valid copy of the OS for each of my 9 computers. My problem is if a computer dies or is upgraded with a new CPU, for example, I should continue to be able to use the same OS.
Now, there might be some difference between purchasing the OS preloaded on a prebuilt computer, and purchasing the OS itself to load on a computer one has built themselves. Dunno.

Id like to know that answer my self. I bought two copys of Win 7 when I built my two I7 3770's. If one went up in a puff of magic smoke, Could I use that same copy in another new build?

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[/quote]

Old James

Id like to know that answer my self. I bought two copys of Win 7 when I built my two I7 3770's. If one went up in a puff of magic smoke, Could I use that same copy in another new build?

If you bought Retail disks then yes you can load them to a new PC when the old 1 blows, if you bought OEM copies then legally no you can't.

Cheers.

Id like to know that answer my self. I bought two copys of Win 7 when I built my two I7 3770's. If one went up in a puff of magic smoke, Could I use that same copy in another new build?

If you bought Retail disks then yes you can load them to a new PC when the old 1 blows, if you bought OEM copies then legally no you can't.

Cheers.

I did buy retail. But that does suck you cant reuse an OEM when a computer goes up in smoke.

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[/quote]

Old James

Id like to know that answer my self. I bought two copys of Win 7 when I built my two I7 3770's. If one went up in a puff of magic smoke, Could I use that same copy in another new build?

If you bought Retail disks then yes you can load them to a new PC when the old 1 blows, if you bought OEM copies then legally no you can't.

Cheers.

I did buy retail. But that does suck you cant reuse an OEM when a computer goes up in smoke.

That's why OEM disks are so much cheaper than the Retail version, but OEM disks have served me well enough here.

Cheers.

I did buy retail. But that does suck you cant reuse an OEM when a computer goes up in smoke.

Well I have a mix of OEM and retail on my 7 machines, if one dies, MB,or HDD I just reload the OS or swap HDD to new MB and have never had a problem yet, this is with WIN7 and Vista. I have occasionally had to "re-register on line" when I change the MB, but at least 3 of them don't have the original MB.

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I did buy retail. But that does suck you cant reuse an OEM when a computer goes up in smoke.

Well I have a mix of OEM and retail on my 7 machines, if one dies, MB,or HDD I just reload the OS or swap HDD to new MB and have never had a problem yet, this is with WIN7 and Vista. I have occasionally had to "re-register on line" when I change the MB, but at least 3 of them don't have the original MB.

Yes, so long as you're not making a major hardware change OEM disks are fine, just don't try them when you change both the motherboard and CPU to a totally different type as that is when you could run into problems.

Cheers.

I did buy retail. But that does suck you cant reuse an OEM when a computer goes up in smoke.

Well I have a mix of OEM and retail on my 7 machines, if one dies, MB,or HDD I just reload the OS or swap HDD to new MB and have never had a problem yet, this is with WIN7 and Vista. I have occasionally had to "re-register on line" when I change the MB, but at least 3 of them don't have the original MB.

Yes, so long as you're not making a major hardware change OEM disks are fine, just don't try them when you change both the motherboard and CPU to a totally different type as that is when you could run into problems.

I've had zero problems re-installing OEM copies of Windows on different machines. In the worst case scenario, I had to call Microsoft who immediately gave me an activation code. In most cases, the product activation worked automatically.

* I need to note that doing this is technically against Microsoft's licensing agreement. The OEM license is only allowed for one machine and is non-transferable as has been stated in this thread. That being said, the point I was trying to get across is that generally Microsoft isn't so militant about enforcing the agreement, however, that may change in the future.

Id like to know that answer my self. I bought two copys of Win 7 when I built my two I7 3770's. If one went up in a puff of magic smoke, Could I use that same copy in another new build?

If you bought Retail disks then yes you can load them to a new PC when the old 1 blows, if you bought OEM copies then legally no you can't.

Cheers.

I did buy retail. But that does suck you cant reuse an OEM when a computer goes up in smoke.

I think that is why I was told MS is going away from OEM OS DVD's, Since people who build their own PCs are their own OEM. I have retail here, on both Vista Business and Win7 Pro, Win7 here is an upgrade DVD, both are x64. And I have a Win7 Premium upgrade DVD that is at present unused, though I plan to change that asap.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

I have an OEM copy of XP Pro x64 that I need to reinstall on a box. The Windows Update to Microsoft Update conversion on it failed and corrupted XP. So, now I need to reinstall it, and redo ALL of the Windows updates for XP. It took 8.5 hours on the first install... I'm not looking forward to this. ...and, this time, I'm NOT changing it to Microsoft Update. I will manually search for the Office Updates I need for Office 2007 Home and Student. The most important to me for that is SP-3 for Office.

Most likely, I'll have to call in to confirm the license when I reactivate the OS with MS. It only takes 5-10 minutes to get through the system.

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TimeLord04
Have TARDIS, will travel...
Come along K-9!
Join Calm Chaos

Yes, so long as you're not making a major hardware change OEM disks are fine, just don't try them when you change both the motherboard and CPU to a totally different type as that is when you could run into problems.

Cheers.

That's the main reason why I prefer VLK's. It took 30 secs max to activate both Win 7 Pro & MS Office on my new cruncher regardless of how many changes I make (as long as I don't install on more than 11 rigs)

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Bob, have you considered buying a Windows 7 OEM disk for that PC?

http://www.directron.com/gfc02050.html

Cheers.

Thanks for the link. At this time I can't justify spending another $100 on a ten year old computer. For now I am leaving it with XP and am only using it as an extra machine crunching seti@home data with limited internet access. If it gets hacked or struck by a virus I will retire the machine.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

Yes, if it isn't broken then don't fiddle with it, just keep an eye on it and let is die in peace when the time comes.

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Yes, if it isn't broken then don't fiddle with it, just keep an eye on it and let is die in peace when the time comes.

I agree.

Leave it as it is (just be sure that you can keep an updated AV on it) at its age it's really not worth the $'s these days to do so.

Cheers.