Windows 7: Win 7 on new hardware

I read this article from Maximum PC: http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/windows_7_upgrade_guide_all_your_questions_answered?page=0%2C0

In it it talks about the fact that you will no longer be able to call MS and re-activate Windows if you change major hardware. Is this true? What will happen if I change out my motherboard let's say and need to re-activate either the Win 7 upgrade from XP or a full version of Win 7? What if I buy a new hard drive and want to put Win 7 on it?

I'm a gamer and change out hardware quite often as I need to upgrade hardware often to keep up with the latest games and hardware. Am I going to have to buy a new copy of Win 7 everytime I upgrade my computer? My machines have at most a one year lifespan. And in that one year I will usualy swap out at least one video card. A video card swap does not require OS reinstall. But one year is the outside, most of my machines only last about 6-8 months before upgrading.


Will I have to buy a volume license or something that will allow me to install over and over?

No one seems to have an aswer for this!!

In only concern oem version as far as I know, you don't have this restriction with retail box version. I may be wrong though.

I am not 100% sure. When they say call MS and Reactivate, I think it only refers to calling MS to reactivate. On the box of Windows 7 that you buy, there will probably be a product key for your Windows 7 that you can use everytime you want to upgrade your computer or install on another system. This product key can be used as many times as you want and you can reinstall as many times as you want as long as the product key is used for the maximum amount of times its allowed.

Maybe you may have to do a reinstall from scratch but I don't think you have to totally buy a new Windows 7 Volume License. Contact Microsoft Support if you want to confirm your query or wait for other Seven Forum Users to post their views.

Also, unless you buy this from an OEM such as HP or Dell, I don't think this applies to you. If you buy the Retail Box, you should be ok. On an OEM machine, you should use the product key they give you if anything happens. It's usually on the OEM Machine itself.

Thanks,
Pestbest

Hello Cranreipan,

Yes, you will still be able to call Microsoft to phone activate your retail Windows 7. If you have a OEM Windows 7 that came preinstalled on your store bought computer, then you will need to call the OEM instead for a phone activation. OEM versions can only be activated on the exact same computer that they were originally first installed on. That is why if you made a major hardware change (ex: motherboard) on a OEM computer, you will have to call the OEM to re-activate.

That's all. It's pretty much the same as with Vista.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

I build all my machines from scratch. I bought 1 OEM machine, it was my first computer in 1990.

cr

As long as you buy a retail version instead of a OEM version of Windows 7, you will not have any problems activating it then on your computer.

Even with OEM licenses, if you stick to the same model motherboard (or really close) it will be fine. I have had an Xforce motherboard go out on a Vista OEM license and they RMA's me a higher model and even after a clean install, it still thought it was the same one. I never had any issues to this day of reactivating it. Essentially its the same machine. I built it myself.

I always buy OEM OS's.

If i replace my mobo i just call and say it's a re-install. It always works.

Or say it's a mobo replacement due to a hardware fault.

Honestly, it never fails to be activated

You may have to call. I actvated my OEM XP x64 without the mobo's RAID function because I had no floppy handy, and figured I'd just do it as a new driver install from the OS once up & running. No can do - it couldn't see the RAID device so it wouldn't install the driver. If I did turn on the RAID, I couldn't boot into the new installation, because, DOH! no RAID device!

So I had to rig a floppy and re-install XP this time with the RAID device enabled. Whan I tried to activate, it wouldn't let me. Sorry, different hardware! WTF???! Same everything, just enabled the RAID. So I had to call & explain, and had no real problem getting the phone activation. But it's pretty twitchy sometimes.

Read this thread: Carey Frisch did not answer this yet my thread was closed!

Some interesting stuff in here and one person posts a white paper about licensing for Vista. Possibly Win 7 licensing will be the same.

cr