Win 7 on new hardware

Well, the 3-day activation limit is true as far back as XP. I did an old XP x64 OEM image restore over a different MB and after clicking on the gazillion New Hardware Found pop-ups, I got the "WTF??? The hardware has changed significantly, you have 3 days to activate."

I didn't pursue it any further as it was just an experiment.

I should also add that as Sevman mentions, I've never had a problem getting re-activated after a phone call if it sounded reasonable. I don't think they're so much worried about some poor bloke upgrading his system, more about somebody cranking out an assembly line with only one license.

Yeah the phone activation is normally not the problem. What I'm addressing here is the MaxPC article states that phone activation will no longer be available.

See the link I posted for a thread on the TechNet forums in my last post before this one.

cr

cramreipan said:

Yeah the phone activation is normally not the problem. What I'm addressing here is the MaxPC article states that phone activation will no longer be available.

See the link I posted for a thread on the TechNet forums in my last post before this one.

cr

Nowhere in that article does it state "phone activation will no longer be available".

YupYup said:

Nowhere in that article does it state "phone activation will no longer be available".

It says this: "Some home users coming from XP might be hoping to cheat the system by calling Microsoft for manual activations on additional machines, but I’m afraid it won’t work this time. Windows is constantly checking in with Microsoft for various reasons (most of which you agreed to in the EULA), and as with Vista, multiple activations are often caught, kicking both copies into non genuine mode. Even though this isn’t as serious as it used to be, it’s still not a good idea, and it’s defiantly illegal."

What I take this to mean is that you could be stuck in situation where if you changed hardware your copy would be kicked into non-genuine mode. Internet activation will of course fail because you changed hardware. If you are unable to call and either through the automated system or by talking to a CSR at MS, you wouldn't be able to re-activate.

Why else would he say the first sentance? I can't see how the first sentance can be read any other way. If Windows is constantly checking various things online, why would it not see that you had activted Win 7 on different hardware and bounce your activation to non-genuine? And if you can't call to re-activate what do you do? Your not activating on multiple machines as he said, but as far as the licensing servers at Redmond see your activation, you are. Different hardware even if it is just a motherboard swap will be seen as a different machine.

So to labor the point he says: "Some home users coming from XP might be hoping to cheat the system by calling Microsoft for manual activations on additional machines, but I’m afraid it won’t work this time."

What else can he mean here?

cr

The article doesn't say that phone activations will no longer work.

It just says you won't be able to call in for multiple phone activations on multiple machines using the same key, and that the activation system will catch such misuse.

But if you need to call in once a year or so because you upgrade your motherboard or something that requires re-activation you shouldn't have a big issue.

It has nothing to do with activating after a hardware change, it is about cheating the system and using the same key on more than one machine at a time.

"Some home users coming from XP might be hoping to cheat the system by calling Microsoft for manual activations on additional machines, but I’m afraid it won’t work this time."

I think, as Brink points out, the operative word here is "additional". I haven't had a problem yet probably because I normally keep the controllers, peripherals & filesystems the same when I migrate to another motherboard.

DJG said:

"Some home users coming from XP might be hoping to cheat the system by calling Microsoft for manual activations on additional machines, but I’m afraid it won’t work this time."

I think, as Brink points out, the operative word here is "additional". I haven't had a problem yet probably because I normally keep the controllers, peripherals & filesystems the same when I migrate to another motherboard.

Especially if you read the whole question, which is

Since I Get a 32 Bit & 64 Bit CD, Can I Install It On Two Machines?

No. Since you are only given one CD key, you can only activate a single version at a time. The good news here is that your CD Key is interchangeable. This means that you can start out with the 32 bit edition if that’s all you need, knowing that you can easily format and change over to 64 bit later on if your requirements change.
Some home users coming from XP might be hoping to cheat the system by calling Microsoft for manual activations on additional machines, but I’m afraid it won’t work this time. Windows is constantly checking in with Microsoft for various reasons (most of which you agreed to in the EULA), and as with Vista, multiple activations are often caught, kicking both copies into non genuine mode. Even though this isn’t as serious as it used to be, it’s still not a good idea, and it’s defiantly illegal.