Solved How to find out if Win 7 Product Key has been used when buying on Ebay

[Xp4me]

I'm slowly putting money away for a new build which probably will not happen until next winter. I will be doing a dual boot system, Win 7 & the dreaded Win 10. I would like to buy a copy of Win 7 now just in case they are hard to find next year or Microsoft pulls some kind of stunt between now and then when it comes to buying and using older copies of Win 7. If I buy one now on Ebay how would I be able to find out if the product key has already been used or not? (WITHOUT INSTALLING AND TRYING TO ACTIVATE IT). Years ago you could just call Microsoft, read off the key and they would tell you. Unfortunately, since they're no longer supporting it probably can't be done that way. Is there an automated system that you can call to find out?
Thanks

 

[Sven1458]

If you buy a win 7 key for a retail product you can activate it over and over. NOT for an OEM copy. so, install and activate and then when you are ready put it on the system that it was intended for. it should activate just fine.

 

[SIW2]

Janek's Pidgen will give info about the key, including whether it is valid i.e. it isn't blacklisted. However that doesn't mean it is not currently in use.

 

[SIW2]

Is there an automated system that you can call to find out?

You could try the freefone number you get by typing slui 4 in start search. That is the activation line.

 

[Xp4me]

If you buy a win 7 key for a retail product you can activate it over and over.

You mean over and over again on different computers, so it's not locked to the motherboard like an OEM version.........correct?
So if I was to buy this one listed on Ebay Windows 7 Professional 64bit Full Retail Version Install DVD w/ Product Key | eBay
even though it's opened and may have been installed on someone's computer already I could still install it on my new computer?

 

[RolandJS]

If I understand MS Retail Windows correctly, if X product key is already in use somewhere, and somebody puts X product key into their recently aquired Windows, I think Microsoft servers will catch anything past the first insertion and flag seccessive Windows installations using X product key as a rogue copy.

"You mean over and over again on different computers, so it's not locked to the motherboard like an OEM version.........correct?" Not concurrently, consecutively.

 

[Xp4me]

If I understand MS Retail Windows correctly, if X product key is already in use somewhere, and somebody puts X product key into their recently aquired Windows, I think Microsoft servers will catch anything past the first insertion and flag seccessive Windows installations using X product key as a rogue copy.

"You mean over and over again on different computers, so it's not locked to the motherboard like an OEM version.........correct?" Not concurrently, consecutively.

Thank you, I just ordered what I hope will be a legal version. It was made in Puerto Rico which I thought was strange, but apparently some were made there.