Can I transfer OEM Licence?

Hi All

I have an MSi laptop that came pre-installed with W7 that I hardly use now and am looking to use just for streaming sport, although might not even be using it for that for much longer as considering getting a Raspberry Pi or a standalone XBMC for that. Anyway I digress! I also have an old Lenovo X61 with Vista OEM.

Can I uninstall W7 from the MSi and use another free OS and then use that licence to install W7 on the Lenovo?

Any advice gratefully received

Not legally; the OEM license is tied to the MSI. A retail license would avoid that.

When you buy a DVD of a commercial OS or a computer with an OS preinstalled you are not purchasing the OS but the license to use it. That is the way it is with commercial software. Windows is sold with 2 primary license types, Retail and OEM. The major difference being that with a retail license the OS can be transferred to another computer when desired. With an OEM license the OS is tied to the computer on which it was originally installed and cannot be transferred to another, even if the original computer is no longer in service. A minor difference is that the hardware manufacturer provides support for an OEM license, not Microsoft. As you would expect there is a significant price difference between the two.

If they wished a computer manufacturer could provide a full retail license OS preinstalled. But that would increase the cost to the consumer and in todays highly competitive market that would be a hard sell. So manufacturers opt for the OEM license which was created for this situation.

You get what you pay for.