Can a DELL Re-installation Disk be used on a Non-Dell PC

alphanumeric said:

You can enter a valid product code manually and it will activate and show as genuine. The other scenario is they modified it to use the Dell OEM-SLP. That would be illegal. This utility should tell you what is going on. Showkey - Windows 10 Forums If it shows OEM marker in the firmware, they illegally modified it to cheat activation. Or if you see a grub boot loader installed, that's another tip off that something isn't on the up and up.

alphanumeric, I know what you are referring to. Just because show key shows an oem marker on your system, it is not necessarily illegal.

As far ALPHA PRO4 system he needs to wipe the drive (Save any data you might need) & install windows 7 Pro 64 with the key, then call Microsoft to activate if it doesn't activate. No need to worry about oem key or what the system actually came with. Just a note, windows updates has been very slow on windows 7, so it could take awhile.

Another alternative for ALPHA PRO4 system, wipe the drive (Save any data you might need) & install windows 10 pro. Don't enter the key when requested. When install is completed, change your windows key to the Windows 7 64 bit pro key. It should activate, if it doesn't activate call Microsoft and tell the them Win pro 7 64 key is not in use on any other system.

groze said:

alphanumeric said:

You can enter a valid product code manually and it will activate and show as genuine. The other scenario is they modified it to use the Dell OEM-SLP. That would be illegal. This utility should tell you what is going on. Showkey - Windows 10 Forums If it shows OEM marker in the firmware, they illegally modified it to cheat activation. Or if you see a grub boot loader installed, that's another tip off that something isn't on the up and up.

alphanumeric, I know what you are referring to. Just because show key shows an oem marker on your system, it is not necessarily illegal.

Yeah, it depends on the circumstances. If it's a Dell, HP, Acer etc, and the marker matches, its fine. If it's an off the shelf motherboard with a Dell SLIC, as an example, odds are it is illegal. If showkey shows an OEM marker, that means there is a SLIC table. My ASUS desktop motherboards don't have any OEM marker, I bought them from NewEgg. They nave stock BIOS. If they had shipped in a desktop PC made by ASUS they would have a SLIC table. They would have been flashed with a custom BIOS. One of the oldest tricks is to flash a custom BIOS so you can use OEM install media on multiple PC's.

alphanumeric said:

groze said:

alphanumeric said:

You can enter a valid product code manually and it will activate and show as genuine. The other scenario is they modified it to use the Dell OEM-SLP. That would be illegal. This utility should tell you what is going on. Showkey - Windows 10 Forums If it shows OEM marker in the firmware, they illegally modified it to cheat activation. Or if you see a grub boot loader installed, that's another tip off that something isn't on the up and up.

alphanumeric, I know what you are referring to. Just because show key shows an oem marker on your system, it is not necessarily illegal.

Yeah, it depends on the circumstances. If it's a Dell, HP, Acer etc, and the marker matches, its fine. If it's an off the shelf motherboard with a Dell SLIC, as an example, odds are it is illegal. If showkey shows an OEM marker, that means there is a SLIC table. My ASUS desktop motherboards don't have any OEM marker, I bought them from NewEgg. They nave stock BIOS. If they had shipped in a desktop PC made by ASUS they would have a SLIC table. They would have been flashed with a custom BIOS. One of the oldest tricks is to flash a custom BIOS so you can use OEM install media on multiple PC's.

An activation exploit can make the markers match. You can turn a Dell that shipped with Linux into a Dell with W7 pro and that would not be legal. [Corrected example.]

An activation exploit can make a SLIC table appear when there really is no table. You could make your ASUS motherboard look as if ASUS built/sold it and that would not be legal.

:-(

groze said:

UsernameIssues said:

alphanumeric said:

Yeah, it depends on the circumstances. If it's a Dell, HP, Acer etc, and the marker matches, its fine. If it's an off the shelf motherboard with a Dell SLIC, as an example, odds are it is illegal. If showkey shows an OEM marker, that means there is a SLIC table. My ASUS desktop motherboards don't have any OEM marker, I bought them from NewEgg. They nave stock BIOS. If they had shipped in a desktop PC made by ASUS they would have a SLIC table. They would have been flashed with a custom BIOS. One of the oldest tricks is to flash a custom BIOS so you can use OEM install media on multiple PC's.

An activation exploit can make the markers match. You can turn a Dell that shipped with W7 home into a Dell with W7 pro and that would not be legal.

An activation exploit can make a SLIC table appear when there really is no table. You could make your ASUS motherboard look as if ASUS built/sold it and that would not be legal.

:-(

UsernameIssues,

I think that was patched by Microsoft.

Nope. Loader exploits still work.

The SLIC table is not version specific. If it has a marker for Windows 7, its any version of Windows 7. The Install media determines what OEM version is installed. The early tricks were to take your buddies Dell 7 Pro install media and use it on your Dell that shipped with Home Premium for a free but illegal upgrade. Word spread and then people started looking for (insert OEM here) Ultimate DVD's on the internet. I think Microsoft looks for Loaders and will try to block them. Doesn't always work, and people just reinstall them.
I think this one of the big reasons why they don't do it that way anymore. Windows 8/8.1 and 10 OEM PC's don't use a SLIC table. An actual unique to that PC product code is embedded in the BIOS. It's also in a section not written to by a BIOS flash. No more generic OEM keys.

ALPHA PRO4 said:

My System is a Desktop CUSTOM BUILD. Mostly ASUS Components. some from
Newegg. Here's the rub...Windows Updates are Ready for Download & Install, but
the system throws a BSOD BEFORE the Updates can be downloaded. Do I have to
ACTIVATE Windows Before I can get the UPDATES?...Then the other Issue is DEVICE
MANAGER Items showing as Not Installed. I installed the Drivers from the ASUS
MB Disk, and it said installed successful. There are No DELL Components on the Build,
including Not Using that Installation Disk which started this conversation. The Drive
was wiped, and New Windows 7 Pro 64 bit / Sp1 was Installed. I just didn't Activate Windows
Before the 1st Desk Top, or After.

I have two aging ASUS motherboards, I don't install any drivers manually unless I have to. I can't remember if I had to manually install any drivers for Windows 7, NVidia graphics maybe? I don't have to install any for Windows 8.1 or 10. Install Windows, and keep doing Windows update until there are no more updates. Then look in device manager and see if anything needs a driver. If there are no issues, leave things be and see if your problems are gone. If they are gone, then you'll no one of the drivers you've been installing is the culprit.