Solved how do i determine whether its an original activation of windows

[NoelDP]

In the case of HP disks, my understanding is that doing a recovery from the disks actually recreates the Recovery partition first, and then starts the Recovery process from within that.

Dell disks usually work differently - if you purchase the disk set, at least. I have no idea what the disk creation routine actually creates.

 

[Layback Bear]

Okay I have had my coffee this morning and now I get what samjambo question is. I sorry but I don't have the answer.

 

[samjambo]

i think from what i read in the HP forums the 'closest' way to find out if a factory reset has been done is the existence/non-existence of the microsoft office starter(if it came preloaded) since its only available in the system drive(drive c) and not in the recovery partition nor in any of the recovery discs...however i read of 'cloning a drive'..not sure how that works in restoring the factory condition of the notebook.

 

[rraod]

In case of my Toshiba notebook, when I got it from the dealer, it had office starter edition unactivated. As I am used to office 2003, I uninstalled the starter version and installed office 2003.

After one year of usage, I needed to reinstall win 7 from the recovery partition. After the reinstall, the office starter edition again appeared along with all the bloatware I found on the new system as it was when I bought it.

 

[samjambo]

rraod...well that contradicts what most people are telling me..am really confused now..

 

[NoelDP]

Don't believe everything you see on the Internet
Every manufacturer has their own way of doing things, and some appear to have not much clue about the legal issues, let alone the technical ones.

 

[samjambo]

i think i'll go with what HP forums say since i've seen a couple of questions on the same forums about MS office starter 2010 not reinstalling after recovery..i might also deliberately recover the system myself to see what happens..
asante sana guys!!! that means thank you in swahili..