Does not activating not use the license key?

[isaac12345]

Hi all!

I use windows 7 professional 32bit and linux mint 17.1 64 bit on separate hard drives. I got the windows 7 32bit iso from my university's msdnaa programme.

I recently changed my motherboard which I think might have some problems regarding its sound hardware. The easiest way for me to troubleshoot is to re-install windows as I wanted to do that anyway. But I wanted to re-install the 64bit version this time. The problem is that I am not sure how many licenses I have left or what my key is as at the moment as I cant boot into windows to find out. I have used this copy on win 7 on two motherboards before already. The 32bit ISO that I have is from msdnaa whereas the 64bit ISO I have is from microsoft's general website.

Is it somehow possible to know how many re-installs I have left or what my key is, from the 32bit ISO? If not, if I clean install the 32bit version only to find out the product key but not activate it over the phone or the internet, will that work? The logic being that only upon activation does the key gets registered as used. Or is there any better method to do this?

Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!

 

[torchwood]

Doesn't matter, the msdn key only validates the OS, not whether its 32 or 64 bit.
The downloaded ISO does not contain a key, only a 30 day grace period.
The key will only be available from your university.

You will not be able to find out how many licences are left unless you are the University Admin IT controller.

Roy

 

[isaac12345]

Right. So how should I go about this problem? Is there any way to get the license key from the 32bit version wihtout installing it first?

 

[torchwood]

Your original key might be on the bottom of your lappy.

see my amendment in earlier post

Roy

 

[isaac12345]

My computer was assembled so there was no sticker with the key on it. If I remember correctly, all I did was install windows from the ISO(which I got from my university's MSDNAA programme) and it worked. When I did a motherboard change some years after, it worked. But this time, its blue-screening, so I need to re-install.

 

[torchwood]

The only way now is to contact the university.

Roy

 

[isaac12345]

Ok. Will do. Thanks for you help.