Transferring installation from a PC to another

I bought a PC which comes with Win7 pre-installed. It probably has a partition with Win7 installation for restoring purposes.

Since I'm going to run linux on this new box, I thought I could use its win7 installation on the my windows box which currently runs vista.

Does anyone know whether this is possible?

No. Pre-installed license is tied to the comp it came with.

Suggest, you get a cheap upgrade copy of win7 for the second comp. Look in Amazon or newegg.

Also, before you switch to linux on the new machine, make an image of your current win7 install on an external drive. That way, you can revert to win7 if you wish to without having to bother about activation or app reinstalls. You can use a program like Macrium Reflect free to create the image.

Legally speaking you can't use it on another PC. However, there are always technicalities to this such as you can simply say you switched our your motherboard because it's DOA or something to that effect and no one would be the wiser. Additionally, you can always exercise your option to refuse the Windows 7 installation from your manufacturer and force a refund of it so you can use it toward a new copy of Windows 7. There is legal precedent of this actually being done because someone wants to run Linux or some other OS.

Darician said:

Legally speaking you can't use it on another PC. However, there are always technicalities to this such as you can simply say you switched our your motherboard because it's DOA or something to that effect and no one would be the wiser. Additionally, you can always exercise your option to refuse the Windows 7 installation from your manufacturer and force a refund of it so you can use it toward a new copy of Windows 7. There is legal precedent of this actually being done because someone wants to run Linux or some other OS.

Darician,

You are confusing between retail and OEM licenses.

Pre-installed win7 machines are OEM activated which means activation is achieved through a combination of elements, some of which are specific to that particular OEM, at the factory.

Assuming for a moment that this can be replicated by the end user, the OP's Vista machine would need to satisfy 2 criteria. One, it would have to be the same OEM brand as the win7 machine. And two, it would have to have a win7 compliant bios.

Feel free to ask.

Well, like I said, legally speaking you can't use an OEM license on another PC. Again though, if you do not accept the EULA for Windows 7 on your PC, you can technically request a refund from the manufacturer for this unused OEM copy of Windows 7.

Good luck with that.

gregrocker said:

Good luck with that.

Indeed.