The Transfer of OEM Licenses from a dead PC to Another PC

I will never argue with you Noel.

Is there a law against unbundling software in the EU?

Why do you think MS are now embedding the product key in the firmware?

Could it possibly be because Europeans have a right to unbundle software ?

lct01a said:

In other words, while your activations may be successful, and validation pass, your transfer of the OEM License from one computer to another is a breach of the licensing rules, and makes the installs effectively counterfeit.

That's interesting. Many sellers on eBay sell OEM Windows licenses that used to be attached to old PCs and provide the product key and and the licensing agreement. I'm looking at the eBay listing I bought from that had Windows 7 licenses available. The seller says that he is 'complying with Microsoft licensing' by bundling the software (Win7) with the original motherboard that the software was never used with. (Never installed on an actual computer, but came with it, I guess they slapped the refurbish sticker on it and didn't install it) The license was placed on my Win8 machine and worked well. The license seems to be a Microsoft Registered Refurbisher license. Is this legal?

Hmm Icitl when I was over in the UK last year my brother had bought Windows 7 from Ebay and it turned out to be an old Dell disk and it was a nightmare and thank goodness Microsoft were very understanding let us use the activation code for the ISO from here
Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7

Why was it a nightmare?

Maybe the install disc had specific dell drivers or something?

SIW2 said:

Why was it a nightmare?

Maybe the install disc had specific dell drivers or something?

I don't know what it was SIW only that it seemed to only install certain parts of the OS and that was followed up with it not activating properly. Frankly it was a right royal shambles and why I used the ISO because in my mind the disk was so corrupted with whatever or like you say was intended for a Dell machine. The machine my brother had was an old Acer which originally had Vista and the drive we had to replace as it was shot, and after three attempts at installing the OS I decided to go that path and like I said Microsoft could not have been more helpful. My brother although fairly able with computing did not know what to do and he had been trying for a week before I got there. All in all it took three days of mucking around and getting nowhere hence me saying it was a nightmare.

Yep the disk my brother had was an official disk but obviously meant for a Dell machine or the seller who we could not contact had 'played" with the thing.

I know that some security suites will only work in certain regions Kaspersky that I use is a prime example, and it might well have been that the disk was not only Dell but may have come from outside the region??

I reckon for the cost of a key or an OEM you could bypass all this hassle.

So far as I'm aware, Dell installation disks are vanilla OS disks (the drivers and add-ons are on a separate disk) and not region-limited in any way. Apart from the obvious SLP mods inserting and validating/allowing the OEM_SLP Key, I believe that they are identical to OEM System Builder disks.

NoelDP said:

So far as I'm aware, Dell installation disks are vanilla OS disks (the drivers and add-ons are on a separate disk) and not region-limited in any way. Apart from the obvious SLP mods inserting and validating/allowing the OEM_SLP Key, I believe that they are identical to OEM System Builder disks.

Thanks Noel I can only think then the disk was damaged in some way because it just would not install the full version of 7 - there were bits and pieces missing and updating was nigh impossible. Anyway I still take my hat off to Microsoft (for a change) for what they did for us.:)