Licensing query


  1. kranky
    Posts : 4
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64
       New #1

    Licensing query


    Hello,

    Long story short(ish): I have a PC that had Win7 Home Premium 64 bit and the C: drive got corrupted by Win 8 Preview that I tried to dual boot with. (My silly fault - I shouldn't have risked it on a good running computer - Especially silly since I hadn't done any backups for 6 months and lost pretty much everything new or modified over this time!). So I knew I had to start again and decided to go for Win 7 Pro 32 bit, because I would have liked more compatibility with some peripherals I have and software than I got with 64-bit Windows.

    Well I have now decided that I don't like 32-bit its slow to boot and much more likely to hang, so I want to go back and emulate my previous 100% reliable 64-bit machine build.

    The question is: Can I just use the old license key again (this is with exact the same hardware, or will the MS database have the new license on file for this hardware).
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  3. Joan Archer
    Posts : 7,538
    Windows 10 64bit/Windows 10 64bit/Windows 10 64bit
       New #2

    I can't give you the exact answer but Welcome to the forum and well done on filling out your system specs, that will help the experts a lot with giving you help.

    Can you tell us what type of licences you actually have, are they Retail or OEM, if retail as long as it's not installed on any other machine you should be able to use it again, you might have to phone Microsoft to get it activated but then again it might not need it.

    One of the experts will be along soon and give you all the information you need so just be patient for a short time and again welcome aboard.
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  4. NoelDP
    Posts : 21,482
    Win 7 x64 Home Premium (and x86 VirtualBox VM)/Win10
       New #3

    There's no problem about changing the bitness of an installation, apart from the fact that it requires a totally clean install.
    You will probably have to use telephone activation after the changeover as well.

    The sort of problems you appear to be seeing in 32-bit are more often than not caused by faulty drivers - have you tried simply updating the drivers from the manufacturer's site?
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  6. kranky
    Posts : 4
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64
    Thread Starter
       New #4

    Thank you for your help.

    I should have stated that both copies of 7 are OEM.
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  7. NoelDP
    Posts : 21,482
    Win 7 x64 Home Premium (and x86 VirtualBox VM)/Win10
       New #5

    Doesn't make any difference - OEM Keys are bit-agnostic as well
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