Can I use OEM disc to install W7 on different machine?

[bug67]

When I bought my Maingear machine, It came with an OEM copy of Windows 7 Professional. I have an old Dell in the other room I'd like to run Windows on. Can I use the disc that came with my Maingear machine to install Windows on the Dell? If I need to re-install Windows on the Maingear at some point, is that license going to work on the re-install or are these licenses a one time/one machine type thing? Thanks in advance.

 

[dsperber]

When I bought my Maingear machine, It came with an OEM copy of Windows 7 Professional. I have an old Dell in the other room I'd like to run Windows on. Can I use the disc that came with my Maingear machine to install Windows on the Dell?

No.

An OEM license for Windows is only for use on the very machine it came with. Reasonable hardware upgrades to the original machine do not cause any sort of legal problem.

If you actually did use that disc to install Win7 on a second machine, the activation process for that Win7 would get rejected by Microsoft's license/activation servers.

If I need to re-install Windows on the Maingear at some point, is that license going to work on the re-install or are these licenses a one time/one machine type thing?

No problem reinstalling Win7 down the road, again subject to reasonable hardware upgrades.

If you actually replaced the motherboard and CPU I would think the information sent to Microsoft at activation time might be considered a second machine and would be rejected. Or, you might get away with it but it's unpredictable.

Anyway, an OEM product key allows you to reinstall freely on that same machine. But it cannot be used to install on a second machine.

 

[bug67]

Thanks for the info, dsperber.

So, if I bought a full copy of Windows 7 (not an upgrade) could I then install that on any machine I wanted or multiple machines? Or am I going to have to buy a licensed copy of Windows for every machine I want to install? Is there like a family-pack type license?

EDIThttp://www.sevenforums.com/windows-updates-activation/:

I guess I probably should've posted this in the Windows Updates & Activation forum?

 

[dsperber]

Thanks for the info, dsperber.

So, if I bought a full copy of Windows 7 (not an upgrade) could I then install that on any machine I wanted or multiple machines? Or am I going to have to buy a licensed copy of Windows for every machine I want to install? Is there like a family-pack type license?

A "retail" (and "full" version, so that you don't have to satisfy the pre-installed other Windows prerequisites for the upgrade price) product key still is only valid for one machine at a time.

But if you want to scrap your old machine and get a new one, you can still use that retail product key on the second machine. You may get a message at "activation" time on the second machine, but it will provide a phone number to call Microsoft and tell them about the machine swap. They'll give you new numbers to enter which will validate that key on the new machine.

But if you want to buy something like a "family license" for multiple machines, well you're still going to have to pay for multiple retail license keys... each of which is usable for one machine at a time.

There are "volume licenses", but those really are for companies.

 

[theog]

If your Dell has Win XP or Vista installed, buy the upgrade.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/31402-clean-install-upgrade-windows-7-version.html?ltr=C