OEM or Retail

Hey Guys,

Need some clarification. I'm trying to do a downgrade on my Asus laptop from Win 8 to Win 7. Will a store bought OEM version work or not. I need a CD and key that doesn't care what kind of machine it's being installed on. The last version of Windows I bought in store was XP. If someone could please clairify which version of the product I need to accomplish what I'm trying to do I would appreciate it.

So what you're saying is OEM would work on my laptop and only my laptop and it would only work for a clean install, is this correct? I'm looking for the cheapest way to accomplish this. OEM Win 7 Home Prem is about $100. Retail for the same is about $199.00. I've already spent almost $600.00 on my laptop. I thought this was gonna be alot easier than it turned out to be I've got several Win 7 ISOs and I thought I would be able to use my Anytime Upgrade Keys, but Noooo. ISOs appear to be vendor specific and you can't use the Anytime Upgrade Keys to do clean installs. So an OEM or Retail install is my only option. Any other thoughts you have would be appreciated.

ShaneCurtis said:

So what you're saying is OEM would work on my laptop and only my laptop and it would only work for a clean install, is this correct?

You also do not receive support from Microsoft in the event you have any problems with that OEM copy of Windows 7, but besides that you are correct. If those restrictions do not bother or inconvenience you in any way you will have no issues purchasing an OEM copy and installing that on your laptop.

Hi there
remember with an OEM copy you won't be able to move it to another computer if you replace your machine. A RETAIL copy can be moved to another computer (phone activation).

I thought actually an Anytime upgrade to say PRO or ULTIMATE would actually work from an OEM copy-- after all a W7 upgrade version allowed an OEM XP installation to count as a "Qualifying product".

Whether you need to do a complete install or perform an upgrade I don't know but I'm sure the Anytime upgrade converts the OEM copy into a full retail version.

Cheers
jimbo

I can confirm that Windows Anytime Upgrade changes an OEM copy of Windows to retail once the upgrade is completed. My laptop came with an OEM copy of Windows 7 Home Premium and it now runs a retail copy of Windows 7 Professional after going through Windows Anytime Upgrade.

I am uncertain if the OEM copy explicitly requires prior activation to perform Windows Anytime Upgrade though. I did it on my laptop after I had activated Windows using the COA sticker on the laptop so I have no point of comparison available.

@AddRam Thanks for pointing at this post and while it is very helpful and well done it does NOT solve my problem. I already have Win 7 installed. My issue is activation. @Jimbo and King Arthur. The Anytime upgrades do work but do not solve the activation issue. Guess it's time to decide if all this is really worth it.

A word of warning: the Windows 7 System Builder license is intended for use only on a system for resale. The license agreement does not permit it to be used on a personal system.

http://oem.microsoft.com/downloads/p...l_and_coem.pdf

This isn't much of a warning, as there appears to be no enforcement of it by Microsoft.

The physical issue that I can think of (other than the UEFI stuff) is whether Windows 7 drivers are available for the laptop. The major concern would be graphics drives, as laptop makers sometimes use custom device IDs for their graphics controller, which causes a problem with drivers downloaded directly from the graphics controller manufacturer (Intel, AMD, NVidia).

Thanks for the info. Win 7 drivers are available for my laptop. I already have Win 7 installed and it seems to be working fine. My issue is activation. Windows update seems to also have most of the drivers I need. I have to install the LAN driver first then Windows Update finds and installs almost everything else