How does MS know I deactivated my window 7 key?

First let me thank the forum for showing me how to deactivate my windows 7 key.

a quick back ground then my question.


A few years back my wife ordered through her school a 3 pack of window 7 License.

We installed 1 on her computer a friends and had one left.

So when I got my windows 8 laptop, after trying for a month or two with Start8 to cover as much as of windows 8 as I could I downloaded Win7 to my new computer taking the 3rd License.


After telling my daughter what I did she said I HATE windows 8 can you do that to mine I said sure, well I did it and forget about my friends computer having the 3rd license, so now she has a not genuine windows 7.

So what I did was... according to the forums directions removed one license from the oldest computer, my wifes , she got a new one with win7.

So the question is how does MS know that I deactivated that license so I can use it on my daughters computer?

When my daughter trys again how will they know that the third licences isn't being used?


Thanks

Ok update.

My daughter tried to activate it and she got the message try another product key or purchase and new one.

WTHeck?

The best way to uninstall any OS is to delete it's partition. During any Clean Install Windows 7 one should always delete all partitions and create new using the installer Drive Options shown in Steps 7 and 8, which effectively does the same.

The hardware signature(s) connected to that Product Key remains in MS Activation servers until it is overwritten with a new hardware signature for that particular key. When a signature is already present for that key, the activation assistant will normally ask "Is this the only PC this copy of Win7 is installed upon" to which you must answer only "Yes" and then it will overwrite the old hardware signature with the new one, effectively deactivating the old install the next time it connects to the internet.

There may be variations in the way Activation is handled for the Upgrade 3-Pack. But the same principle should apply that you may reinstall or move retail Win7 as often as you please as long as you only have it activated on the allowed number of PC"s.

Sometimes this must be done using phone activation as shown in How To Activate Windows 7 by Phone Step-by-Step Guide when if the automated service won't complete it you can connect to speak with an agent and explain the situation.

As a last resort you can contact MS Customer Service which will validate the Key and if necessary open a Support case to see that it gets activated by whatever means necessary.

So are you saying because I did it a 4th time, that being my daughters computer, that I have to now delete the partition in the one that I just activated which was on my old computer, (long story) but, lets just say I redid it to activate it so I could deactivate it then redo my daughters computer all over again?

There is really no deactivation. You will just activate Windows on another computer after you remove it from the previous one. See this tutorial for activation.

Activate Windows 7 by Phone

Mrnew said:

So are you saying because I did it a 4th time, that being my daughters computer, that I have to now delete the partition in the one that I just activated which was on my old computer, (long story) but, lets just say I redid it to activate it so I could deactivate it then redo my daughters computer all over again?

I was only explaining the best way to delete an installation. Whether you delete it or not has no bearing on the Product Key remaining activated for that hardware until it's activation is overwritten with a new hardware signature due to reinstall to new hardware, or changing the key in Computer>Properties.

Since the install is deleted (or overwritten, recycled, never started again, etc) the activation servers have no way to connect to know if it is or isn't being used. So the same hardware signature remains tied to that key until it is overwritten with a new hardware signature during activation. The fact that a key already is tied to that hardware means MS needs to ask if you are only running it on allowed number of machines, so it can be legally overwritten.