Caution on buying Win7 off web

We have many reported cases here of bogus Win7 keys, even with actual packaging, sold on eBay and elsewhere on the web. These keys might initially work but soon are blacklisted because they are Technet keys sold in violation of usage agreement by Software subscriber.

A thread was just closed attempting to sell boxed retail Win7 DVD with key, including a souvenir signature edition many of us received for demonstrating Win7 in a house party.

This might have been legit but it is still risky since even if it activates, the fact that someone you do not know has a copy of that key means they or someone else could start using it again, invalidating your activation.

For these reasons, the only people it is really safe to buy second-hand Win7 from are family and close friends who you trust enough to know it is legit and they will not start using it again.

This is also why Family Packs should not be split between those outside of your network or family since the purchaser must keep close tally that only 3 copies are in use at a time, so that the key isn't given to Susie's college roommate thus deactivating Dad's desktop.

What happened Bushman?

i agreed to have win7 installed on for a few extra bucks on a HD i bought from BestBuy. Bought a whack of other toys with it and put all the packing materails (boxes0 aside. did not look at the disc. Thought it had activated but 30 days in got the balck screen and frequwnt popups 9windows not genuine) etc etc. Looked thru all the packing materail and found a "windows7' DVD, with windows 7 written on it in sharpie marker

got royally fed up and spent my weekend beer money on a GENUINE win 7 ultimate from another computer store.

BB employee was later fired for internal theft, mostly Windows OS software.

Best Buy owed you Win7 if you had a receipt for install or else they shared in the theft.

That's a lot of beer.

As usual, excellent information and very timely, Greg. When I bought my laptop from Dell, it had 7 Pro installed. No install or recovery disk was included, just a recovery partition. I was looking around online and found several Microsoft Certified (or Gold Certified) Partners selling 7 Pro OEM disks. Most of the companies I looked at have been in business for at least 10 years. Considering that these vendors are Certified Partners and are registered with Microsoft, is it safe (and legal) to purchase OEM software from them?

You're better off contacting Dell and requesting a Restore DVD....it'll cost you less also.

patio said:

You're better off contacting Dell and requesting a Restore DVD....it'll cost you less also.

Appreciate the suggestion but I've been round and round with Dell. They refuse to provide any kind of disk saying they've completely discontinued that practice.