Transferring my Windows 7 licence to another PC?

byte

I have a retail copy of Win7 Professional running on my current Dell desktop.

However, I plan to do a selfbuild PC soon, and aim to install this Win7 on the new rig. Is this doable?

The Dell will be reverted back to the copy of Vista it came with, so only one computer will still use this licence, however, all the hardware will of course be different.

Just not sure if I can "move" my Win7 licence.

Any help appreciated.

byte

To follow up, and for my own convenience when it comes to transfer, I think I've found the answer I spent ages looking for!

Yes, you will first need to uninstall the product key.

Click Start, type: CMD

Right click CMD, then click Run as administrator

At the command prompt, type: slmgr.vbs -upk

Then hit enter on your keyboard

This will uninstall the product key and set the computer back to trail mode. The key will be free to use with another another computer.

Exit the command prompt and restart the system to confirm the changes.
Proceed to upgrade the new computer, if you encounter any activation problems, please try activating by telephone:

Activate Windows 7 manually:
1. Click Start, and in the Search box type : slui.exe 4

2. Press ENTER on your Keyboard

3. Select your Country.
4. Select the Phone Activation option, and hold on for a real person.

http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7install/thread/1b73fbb1-3892-41ef-8435-596e3cf0eb94

byte

Just as a final update to this, I got my PC bits from dabs on Friday.

I did as per instructed in the quote above, and Windows installed and activated on my PC without a hitch (online). No need to ring Microsoft.

Fluffy88

Thanks for the follow up.
I upgraded my version of vista to 7 a year ago and I now want to do a new clean install of 7 on the same laptop, just so I get rid of all the crap on it, and bring it's speed back up.

This should help me with doing this too
Anyway, thanks!

denballs

if your not doing anything illegal and if its easier jus use windows 7 activator.....you dont need a key to install win7 it only knocks off the annoying........this copy of win7 is not genuine on the bottom right of screen.....

Fysh

@denballs - or, instead of breaking the terms of the licence, the OP could be conscientious as described and ensure that their paid-for licence is correctly transferred from one machine to another.

Just being able to do something isn't enough to make it a good idea - otherwise we'd all be walloping ourselves in the nuts with hammers and saying it was a great idea...

user1842

You dont need to remove the product key from the old computer. As long as Win 7 is removed from the old PC it will activate on the new PC without any problems. A retail version of Windows 7 is not PC specific. The licence will auto transfer.

Well to be more accurate, you can activate retail Win 7 up to 5 times without uninstalling anything. After that point Microsoft might deny the activation request but you can simply ring them and they will give you a new code.

I dont think there is any point in uninstalling the key to be honest. Just wipe your old machine.

byte

Fluffy88 wrote: »

Thanks for the follow up.
I upgraded my version of vista to 7 a year ago and I now want to do a new clean install of 7 on the same laptop, just so I get rid of all the crap on it, and bring it's speed back up.

This should help me with doing this too
Anyway, thanks!

Shouldn't be necessary to follow the procedure on your laptop, as none of the hardware has changed.

byte

dmclean1842 wrote: »

You dont need to remove the product key from the old computer. As long as Win 7 is removed from the old PC it will activate on the new PC without any problems. A retail version of Windows 7 is not PC specific. The licence will auto transfer.

Well to be more accurate, you can activate retail Win 7 up to 5 times without uninstalling anything. After that point Microsoft might deny the activation request but you can simply ring them and they will give you a new code.

I dont think there is any point in uninstalling the key to be honest. Just wipe your old machine.

Oh right. Shame they don't say that, or at least make it obvious.

Anyway, it worked for me, and only took a few minutes.

Thanks for the tip though.

Odaise Gaelach

Many thanks byte for sharing your information. It'll come in handy for when I want to build a new PC later on in the year.

denballs wrote: »

if your not doing anything illegal and if its easier jus use windows 7 activator.....you dont need a key to install win7 it only knocks off the annoying........this copy of win7 is not genuine on the bottom right of screen.....

The Windows 7 EULA states in Section 4: Activation and Section 5: Validation that you are not allowed to bypass or circumvent activation or validation. So using a Windows 7 activator is illegal, even if you already own a copy of Windows 7.

matt-dublin

the windows 7 licence key will only activate on one machine

when you try and use it it will say the key has already activated.

unless you've got a MAK which can be used multiple times

download and install this:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=12044dd8-1b2c-4da4-a530-80f26f0f9a99&displaylang=en

and it should tell you how many activations are left on yout key

if it spits an error it usually means its a single activation license