Recover/Use Windows 7 Product Key

[UncleBill7]

My HP Pavilion P6000 died recently (aka Machine A). Appears to be hardware, not software issue. I was running Windows 7 Professional.

I have a ton of old software installed on the machine. Most of which I no longer have the install disks. (My bad...misplaced in divorce move)

I have an identical machine that I inherited from my deceased father-in-law (aka Machine B). It came with Windows 7 (Professional I THINK), but he upgraded to Windows 10. His machine boots, but I do not know the password.

I've installed my broken Machine A hard drive into my father-in-laws Machine B. After some tweaking, it boots Windows 7 Professional.

Since the mother board changed and it is an OEM copy of Windows, my research says that Microsoft will invalidate the Windows 7 license. So, I have not yet connected to the Internet.

Money is tight in retirement, I'm unable to afford to buy a real, legal, Microsoft, non-OEM product key at this time

Questions:
1) If I mount Machine B's original Windows 10 drive in an external enclosure, can I pull the Product Key out of the registry? If so, where/how?


2) When Machine B was upgraded to Windows 10, did the product key change? If yes, can the old Windows 7 product key still be found in the registry?


3) Can a Windows 10 product key be used with Windows 7?

4) The only hardware that has changed on Machine B is the hard drive. Shouldn't I be able to change the product key back to that originally provided with Machine B and be valid in Microsoft's eyes?

5) Since the OS is OEM, the option to change to product key via an interface isn't provided. How do I change it?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Megahertz07]

A Win 7 OEM computer has a SLP license. The installed Windows 7 has an file with a generic license that must mach a license saved on BIOS. If Computer B came with a Win 7 Pro SLP license, the HDD from computer A should activate on computer B.
- On computer B, look under the case or under the battery. There should be a COA sticker with the Win 7 type that came with it. If it's a Win 7 pro, you're luckier.

 

[SIW2]

My HP Pavilion P6000 died recently (aka Machine A). Appears to be hardware, not software issue. I was running Windows 7 Professional.

The only hardware that has changed on Machine B is the hard drive. Shouldn't I be able to change the product key back to that originally provided with Machine B and be valid in Microsoft's eyes?

Yes. Or you can use slp activation on machine B.

 

[samuria]

Worse case you can upgrade to 10 as there will be a licence for that pc

 

[UncleBill7]

Just to be clear....

Machine A had a product key sticker on the bottom of the desktop case.

Machine B has a product key sticker on the bottom also, but it is unreadable.

The consensus is that even though Machine A's Windows was activated, placing that drive in Machine B and connecting to the internet will ignore the product key (if any) on the hard drive and re-activate automatically using the SLP license stored on the motherboard and bios?

Please confirm.

Thank all for the feedback.

 

[Megahertz07]

Machine A drive has a Win 7 Pro SLP license.
If machine B has a "Win 7 Pro" on BIOS, yes, Machine A drive on Machine B will activate. If machine B has any other Win 7 than Pro, it will not activate.

 

[UncleBill7]

Sorry to "beat a dead horse", but....

As you may recall, I have NOT connected to the internet since placing my drive in this other machine.

I read this morning that Windows with a OEM SLP license will self activate when windows is launched. No internet connection required, so no communication with Microsoft servers.

Is this true?

Is there a means of determining if it has self activated off-line? Will something in my registry have changed that I can check?

I've also recently read about and downloaded MGADiag. Will that confirm that my windows license has changed to that of the new machine?

Thank all for the help. This forum and it's members are amazing.

 

[SIW2]

UncleBill7

OEM SLP license will self activate when windows is launched. No internet connection required, so no communication with Microsoft servers.

Is this true?

Yes.

Press the windows key and the pause/break key at the same time. The system window will pop up and it will tell you at the bottom if it is activated.

 

[torchwood]

Hi

The MGDiag tool is no longer availble from MS, check the pinned tutorial at the top of this forum for a 3rd party link, its safe.

Either way, as both machines are from the same manufacturer and same version, ie HP W7 Pro, and you have NOT physically swapped out the motherboard, BOTH machines will auto activate when you install W7 on a new hard drive (spinner or SSD) the required information is in your BIOS. NO need to input a key

 

[UncleBill7]

Just to be clear torchwood..... I am NOT installing nor re-installing W7. I am replacing a hard drive that has an activated version of W7 on it with a hard drive from another identical machine that also has an activated version of W7 on it.

So, from the view of the hard drive, I HAVE swapped out the mother board.

Sorry to knit-pic, but if this goes belly up when I connect to the internet and Machine B with Machine A's hard drive is unusable, I'm really up the creek. I want to ensure that those who supply opinions/suggestions are very clear as to the situation.

 

[SIW2]

You have moved the hd to machine B.

Did you check it is activated by looking in the system window.

 

[UncleBill7]

SIW2,
Yes it says "Activated", but it said "Activated" when the W7 hard drive was in the other machine.

 

[Megahertz07]

It is activated as the SLP license on the HDD matches the one in BIOS as the two computers were same brand and model and had same Win 7 pro

 

[UncleBill7]

Many thanks for the expertise and patience.

I need to correct what I stated in post #10.... "I am replacing a hard drive that has an activated version of W7 on it with a hard drive from another identical machine that also has an activated version of W7 on it."

I should have stated.... " I am replacing a hard drive that originally had an activated version of W7 that was upgraded to W10 with a hard drive from another identical machine that has an activated version of W7 on it."

My original problem description stated this, but post #10 didn't.

Hopefully this makes no difference????

 

[SIW2]

SIW2,
Yes it says "Activated", but it said "Activated" when the W7 hard drive was in the other machine.

You are fine.

Nothing to worry about.

I suggest the first to do right now is make an image of your current system and store the image file preferably on a different hard disk. So whatever happens in the future, you can restore the image. For example you might get some nasty malware at some time, or the hard disk might die. If you have an image it can be restored - even to new/different hard disk at any time.

You can use the built in windows system image function, or there are many free 3rd party disk imaging programs available. They all do the basic job.