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Moving a Windows 7 licence key

Shiminay · 2011-10-10 13:28:25

Hello all, Later on this week I hope to be taking delivery of some new hardware. I've got a copy of Win 7 Ultimate at home that I'll want to continue using, but I don't know what the deal is with moving keys from one set of hardware to another. I recall running into issues with the Genuine Windows thing before after some…

10-10-2011 1:28pm

#1

Shiminay

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Hello all,

Later on this week I hope to be taking delivery of some new hardware. I've got a copy of Win 7 Ultimate at home that I'll want to continue using, but I don't know what the deal is with moving keys from one set of hardware to another. I recall running into issues with the Genuine Windows thing before after some hardware changes.

Currently installed on a 500GB drive, I was just going to copy any essentials off it, format, and fresh install after rebuilding with the new hardware - anything else I should be worrying about? Is there some sort of "deactivate this Windows and free the licence key up again" function somewhere?

Also, since I'm here, how does one clear away the "which OS are you booting into" from the disk - had a failed install attempt on this drive before and the BIOS thinks there're 2 copies of Windows 7 installed on the disk - this is the Master Boot Record I need to look at, yea?

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#2 10-10-2011 1:31pm

cookie1977

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This thread might help:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=73045704

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#3 13-10-2011 9:37pm

byte

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byte

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Or this thread, when I did a hardware change:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056130696

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#4 14-10-2011 5:51am

Kinetic^

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If it's the copy we got at the launch preview then you'll be fine. You should be able to get rid of the MBR by booting to the Win7 Disk, then use the custom install option and format the drive. You could also boot in to a gparted live disk and format it that way.

In relation to activation, it may work using the online process but if not then you'll need to activate it over the phone (automated system so no human interaction) which is a bit of a pain but it will work ok in the end. I installed and re-activated my own copy several times.

Only way you'll get a GTFO for moving your product key is if it's a n OEM license, the one received at the preview was a retail one.

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#5 14-10-2011 11:54am

Shiminay

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Cool, thanks for that folks. Doing the build on Monday - all the parts are finally here, just doing dataz transfers from the OS hard disk to a storage disk before I do a wipe and clean install (cause that MBR thing annoys me).

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