Swap Window Keys to aviod reinstallation

[arkarkwin]

I bought window 7 home premium with Micro Center coupon. After I installed it on my main desktop, I got myself one more copy of Window 7 from digital river though my student account. I didn't know that these guy were giving away window7 professional for same price with home premium. Now I need to get professional install on my main desktop for XP mode and plan to upgrade my laptop with home premium I currently installed on my desktop. I am just wondering if it could be possible to just swap the CD key to aviod reinstalling over my desktop. I talked to Microsoft tech and support said each key is tied to each DVD. So I can't just swap my Desktop key with digital river version and then install home premium in laptop.
I want to get second option from you guy.

 

[wallyinnc]

arkarkwin, welcome to the forums.

I don't think you can, I am not sure they are linked to the DVD, but they are specific for the version. Moreoveer, if you could activate a Home Premium with a Professional key, it would still be a Home Premium, if I understood what you are trying to do.

I am pretty sure you will have to reinstall if you need another version. then you should use the respective keys

 

[gregrocker]

Keys are version-specific.

 

[arkarkwin]

Thanks you , then I just have to bite the bullet and install the pro over my desktop and upgrade my laptop with home premium.
Thanks you.

 

[wallyinnc]

Sounds like a plan.
Please, BACK UP any personal files before you start...

 

[arkarkwin]

Oh yeah, quite the work in this weekend. I just back up the whole /users/arkar folder which is about 250GB and 30GB worth of steam backup game file to my secondary HD.
There is one more thing I want to know, since I just format the drive and install the Window 7 Home premium, do u think, it will be ok just to install window 7 pro on the top as "upgrade install" or shall I go with custom install to format and install everything for long term stability?
Thanks

 

[wallyinnc]

arkar, as your Home Premium install is new, it won't be polluted with crap that builds up in time, so the upgrade would (maybe) only mean installing the extra features of Pro. I don't know enough about the OS's guts to tell if there are other differences.

On the other hand, as you don't have anything to preserve from this install, there is no reason for doing an upgrade, I would just go with a clean install. It won't take you much longer in this situation (it might actually take less time than upgrading) and will guarantee a sparkling clean new Pro install!!

 

[gregrocker]

+1

and boot from the Installer so you can use the Advanced tools to Delete everything, create New partition(s) as desired, then Format.

If you are using Upgrade media, the installer will scan your HDD at boot-up and find the previous qualifying OS to pass a flag allowing activation.

 

[jonwayne]

Swap Win7 Ultimate Full CD Key with Another Win7 Ultimate Full CD Key

I have 2 laptops with Windows 7 Ultimate Full version installed. I want to swap the CD Keys between the 2 laptops, as I want to give one laptop to a family member.

How do I do the CD KEY swaps without having to re-install or buying new keys? I changed the CD KEY on one laptop but Activation Barked at me stating it was invalid.

Thanks,

 

[gregrocker]

How did you attempt to Change the Key? Did you use the link at Control Panel>System?

Try typing CMD in Start search box, rightclick on result to Run as Admin., then type slmgr -ipk xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx replacing x's with the new Product Key.

If this fails, try calling MS: How To Activate Windows 7 by Phone Step-by-Step Guide

 

[Bill2]

I have 2 laptops with Windows 7 Ultimate Full version installed. I want to swap the CD Keys between the 2 laptops, as I want to give one laptop to a family member.

How do I do the CD KEY swaps without having to re-install or buying new keys? I changed the CD KEY on one laptop but Activation Barked at me stating it was invalid.

Thanks,

If you have the same version installed on both laptops, why would you want to swap keys? What do you hope to accomplish by doing that?

Retail keys get tied to the original hardware. You'll need to activate by phone and call MS for that. But you'll need to do that for the 2nd laptop as well.

 

[jonwayne]

Swap Win7 Full CD Keys on 2 Laptops

Yes, I made the change on the cd key in the Control Panel, System on the Toshiba LS505. When it went to activate the KEY on the internet, it informed me that it was not valid, and asked me to download Windows Geniune update, which I did and it gave me a "Counterfet" message. I tried 2x and both times it failed.

The CD Key I was trying to move is Geniune and works fine on the Toshiba NB205. This laptop was offline at the time (Toshiba NB205).

I rekeyed in the original CD Key back on the Toshiba LS505, and it activated fine without error.

 

[jonwayne]

One has Media and the other Does not. I just bought the Key

One has media and the other CD KEY does not as I just bought the CD Key.

I want to give the laptop to a family member with the CD KEY that has the actual media. Does this make sense?

 

[gregrocker]

The retail installers are all the same with some versions hidden. It is only the key which determines which version it will activate.

Since these are same versions anyway, just put the DVD with the key you intend to gift. Doublecheck it's the installed key using Belarc Advisor to audit all of your Software keys on the machine.

You might want to copy the DVD first using ImgBurn, or extract its ISO to store.

Is it possible the key you bought might be faulty as we are getting reports that keys sold online at eBay are beginning to fail? http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en/genuinewindows7/thread/a2444f34-0aff-4f29-a8ac-67e28b0c0285

 

[wallyinnc]

One has media and the other CD KEY does not as I just bought the CD Key.

I want to give the laptop to a family member with the CD KEY that has the actual media. Does this make sense?

Jon, as Greg mentioned, you just need to make a copy of the DVD. The key is not linked to the DVD anymore.