Is my activated windows LEGAL ??

Hi everyone;
A friend of mine gave me a working activation key for my Windows 7 Ultimate, I thinks he got it (with other keys for Office 2010 and Visual Studio 2010 ..) from his MSDN subscription. Since I am not the one who is subscribed to MSDN is my successfully activated Windows legal ??

Hello EnemyWithin,

Technically, no it's not legal since the key is suppose to only be used by your friend as part of his MSDN subscription agreement. If caught, he could have his MSDN subsciption permanently suspended without refund and all of his key numbers from there invalidated.

Thanks for your quick reply. it's a bit sad though; an ultimate license costs nearly a two months wage here.

Ouch, now that's not fair.

Well, think of how many years' wages there it cost Microsoft to write, test, polish, and release it (given it had thousands of developers working on it for years, not including the time that went into the underpinnings that were released with Vista...). There's always two sides to every coin .

EnemyWithin said:

Thanks for your quick reply. it's a bit sad though; an ultimate license costs nearly a two months wage here.

Do you have a particular need for the Ultimate version though. You could cut that price in 1/2 with Home Premium...which is probably sufficient for your needs.

cluberti said:

Well, think of how many years' wages there it cost Microsoft to write, test, polish, and release it (given it had thousands of developers working on it for years, not including the time that went into the underpinnings that were released with Vista...). There's always two sides to every coin .

I understand that perfectly, it was just me moaning (but I still believe that adapting the prices for each country would help against piracy)

pparks1 said:

EnemyWithin said:

Thanks for your quick reply. it's a bit sad though; an ultimate license costs nearly a two months wage here.

Do you have a particular need for the Ultimate version though. You could cut that price in 1/2 with Home Premium...which is probably sufficient for your needs.

That seems to be the way to go. If I buy a Home Premium license and change my motherboard/CPU will I be able to install windows using this same license ?

Oh and happy new year everyone ^^

You should be able to and you can always contact Microsoft if you are unsure.