Windows 7 cd question

phill106

I have a legitimate windows 7 cd i got from microsoft as a gift...somewhere. Its in the house, and i dont fancy looking for it. Code is still saved on my laptop from the install. If i downloaded an iso from the net, and installed using my key, would that work?
Assuming i used the same version (64 bit) would i need to look for the exact same release?
ta

Fysh

Why would you want to use an ISO you retrieved from a presumably shifty source on the net instead of digging out your legitimate installation media?

phill106

Fysh wrote: »

Why would you want to use an ISO you retrieved from a presumably shifty source on the net instead of digging out your legitimate installation media?

my house is very messy
ill find it!

phill106

Ok got a windows 7 ultimate cd off a friend. Now if i reinstall it, but use my key, will that work? Or would my key be locked to particular media? My key is also for ultimate.
Thanks

Fysh

phill106 wrote: »

Ok got a windows 7 ultimate cd off a friend. Now if i reinstall it, but use my key, will that work? Or would my key be locked to particular media? My key is also for ultimate.
Thanks

So long as the media is for the same version and edition you should be ok.

(With burned media or ISO images you should also consider how well you trust the source, but if it's a retail disk you're probably ok).

phill106

Fysh wrote: »

So long as the media is for the same version and edition you should be ok.

(With burned media or ISO images you should also consider how well you trust the source, but if it's a retail disk you're probably ok).

By version and edition, does that mean 7 64 bit or down as far as the release version (7400 or whatever they would be )

Fysh

phill106 wrote: »

By version and edition, does that mean 7 64 bit or down as far as the release version (7400 or whatever they would be )

By version I meant Upgrade, Retail or Original Equipment Manufacturer and by edition I meant Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise or Ultimate. A key for Home Premium shouldn't work for Professional media, for example, though I haven't tested this to find out what happens - I think if you enter a key that's invalid for your media, you get a message telling you as much and the option of continuing the installation as a 30-day trial version.

As far as I'm aware, the key for a given Windows 7 licence should work with either 32-bit or 64-bit installation media for that licence. Equally, the key shouldn't be tied to a given software revision.

With Vista, any disc would work to install any version within the same bit depth. But Windows 7 goes back to the pre-Vista method of having separate discs for every edition and release channel (Retail full, Retail upgrade, OEM etc). This can be worked around if you need to - make an ISO image of the disc, delete the ei.cfg file from the sources directory, save and burn the modified image.

Keys aren't specific to the bit depth, I've installed 64-bit using a key supplied with a 32-bit disc for example.