Microsoft confirms Windows 7 install trick is legal

Dreams said:

I don't know about The U.S., but here in Germany OEMs are also sold separately from hardware. You can install the OEM on any PC you want, and if you sell that PC, the OEM OS doesn't have to go with it. Which lets you install the OEM software on another PC of your choice. Microsoft lost the OEM battle in a German court back in the 90s. Here you can sell and resell OEMs with no connection to hardware as you wish.

There are two different types of OEM disks. The manufacturers used to provide oem recovery disks with each machine sold where the disk was branded as such like HP, Dell, Gateway, etc. and bound to the one machine by serial numbers. The branded disk is what goes with the machine there.

The other type of oem disk is those sold separately for custom system builders and then sold. Good for one system only there once used.

pparks1 said:

I agree with Paul that Microsoft needed to come out with this information sooner. And I also find it nice that Microsoft went this route with upgrading of the Windows 7 OS.

By no means, do I feel this was an "accident" by Microsoft. This installation method was designed this way on purpose and Microsoft clearly intended their customers to fully utilize it. This gets them a sale, plain and simple. People who might have otherwise pirated the copy if they had to pay the full install price, might be willing to pay for the upgrade. Even if they only persuade 20% to take them up on this, that's 20%.

Microsoft can and will sell this at any price to anybody. You got OEM, retail, upgrade, student, MSDN subs, Technet...all have wildly different pricing for the exact same thing. They take the money however they can get it.

You might want to look over one blog on the difference in licensing seen between them. What Microsoft won't tell you about Windows 7 licensing

You forgot the Starter editions in some areas as well as the 7 Enterprise editions. For some people the Home Premium edition will work fine without question. For other the additional features as well as support for the XP Mode, AppLocker, BitLocker, and other features are best decided on when looking at the actual comparisons. Compare Windows 7 Editions

Lol @ Microsoft.


'Nuff Said.