win7 licence question

opinion guy

so here is the deal
I'm running a macbook pro which I plan to update in coming months - but not yet.
I have a winNT partition on it also.

I want to upgrade to windows 7. Now this I want to do as soon as I can really. But since I plan on upgrading the MBP to a new MBP a bit later (month or three) - I'm wondering if I purchase a license for win7 on my current machine, does it remain valid if I clone the windows partition to the new machine, or would I need a new copy of windows ?

Friel

You'd need a new license key, cause if you cloned them you could use windows on both of the macs, and that's illegal.

opinion guy

Friel wrote: »

You'd need a new license key, cause if you cloned them you could use windows on both of the macs, and that's illegal.

Yeah that's what I thought:mad:

I'll be wiping the first machine to pass it on to someone else. Dam this is annoying. If I upgrade the MBP now - new models are expected in next few months. If I wait and don't upgrade the windows stuff its holding me back in stuff I need to do.
Bloody annoying

Overheal

A Windows Full Retail License is transferable from one machine to the next. It is valid for 1 user, 1 PC.

A Windows Upgrade License converts any existing license of a previous version to a current version of the same license type. eg. if you upgrade a Windows XP OEM with a Windows 7 upgrade, your license becomes Windows 7 OEM. If you upgrade XP Retail, it becomes Windows 7 Retail. OEM is of course for system builders, tied to 1 PC and 1 PC only. OEM licenses are non-transferable, except from the system builder to an end user, on the same PC Hardware. It cannot be moved from one machine to another.

If you purchase a full retail license (not an upgrade) for about €199, you can install and run it now, and transfer it later.

Capt'n Midnight

OEM windows can't be moved to a different motherboard, - retail copies are more expensive because they can be moved (not copied)

read the EULA for conditions , IIRC most versions of windows 7 require a second license if you install in a separate partition on the same drive, never mind anything else

opinion guy

Overheal wrote: »

A Windows Full Retail License is transferable from one machine to the next. It is valid for 1 user, 1 PC.

A Windows Upgrade License converts any existing license of a previous version to a current version of the same license type. eg. if you upgrade a Windows XP OEM with a Windows 7 upgrade, your license becomes Windows 7 OEM. If you upgrade XP Retail, it becomes Windows 7 Retail. OEM is of course for system builders, tied to 1 PC and 1 PC only. OEM licenses are non-transferable, except from the system builder to an end user, on the same PC Hardware. It cannot be moved from one machine to another.

If you purchase a full retail license (not an upgrade) for about €199, you can install and run it now, and transfer it later.

Aha cool.
How do you 'move' it ? Are clones allowed ?

Capt'n Midnight

opinion guy wrote: »

Aha cool.
How do you 'move' it ? Are clones allowed ?

NO don't even joke about using a second copy of the license.

Windows has always been (at least) one license per machine. If you have a problem with shelling out €199 for a variation in licensing conditions of an OS you can get includedwith a €299 laptop remember you can pickup Mac OSX for €30 or BSD/linux/etc. for half nothing



To move it you have to remove it from PC1 and then do a clean install on PC2, and then ring up microsoft because the install will probably complain that the license key is already in use ..

It's not like autodesk where you can export the license to a disk and physically transfer it that way. Since it's the OS you really have to delete the OS to uninstall it.

transferrable copies are expensive for a reason, mostly because microsoft isn't a charity.

opinion guy

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

NO don't even joke about using a second copy of the license.

Bit less of the moral outrage there Cap'n. I wasn't joking I only ask because cloning is much easier and I don't know what the rules are. Better to ask the questions before investing my cash don't you think ? Quite why all this has to be such a pain in the ass is beyond me.

Windows has always been (at least) one license per machine. If you have a problem with shelling out €199 for a variation in licensing conditions of an OS you can get includedwith a €299 laptop remember you can pickup Mac OSX for €30 or BSD/linux/etc. for half nothing

I don't mind paying 199 for a license - I do mind doing it twice. I'm well aware of the other options. If I didn't have to have windows I wouldn't but I'll be running windows only software.

To move it you have to remove it from PC1 and then do a clean install on PC2, and then ring up microsoft because the install will probably complain that the license key is already in use ..

What an unnecessary pain in the backside.

Capt'n Midnight

cloning probably won't work.

for anything between NT and Window XP cloning to anything with slightly different hardware will just blue screen and keel over.

not sure if there is a sysprep for windows 7 , that's the nearest you could get in previous versions for moving a drive to new hardware


It really sucks compared to linux which just boots up on new hardware and windows 98 which gets really excited and spends the next half hour going "hey I found yet more new hardware, do you want to install it ? " bless it's little cotton socks

opinion guy

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

cloning probably won't work.

for anything between NT and Window XP cloning to anything with slightly different hardware will just blue screen and keel over.

not sure if there is a sysprep for windows 7 , that's the nearest you could get in previous versions for moving a drive to new hardware

Aha that what I'm afraid of - doesn't windows register your hardware serial or some other unique identifier when you register it ?

It really sucks compared to linux which just boots up on new hardware and windows 98 which gets really excited and spends the next half hour going "hey I found yet more new hardware, do you want to install it ? " bless it's little cotton socks

lol

ok thanks. I think this is going to be more hassle than its worth - I'll try to limp on with WinNT as long as I can until I make some hardware decision

Overheal

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

transferrable copies are expensive for a reason, mostly because microsoft isn't a charity.

Bill Gates is a charity...

What an unnecessary pain in the backside.

Not really. You're just wiping the hard drive of PC1 then Installing windows on PC2. If necessary you ring up Microsoft, but those phone calls typically don't last very long at all. I've never had to make one though.

Conversely if you reinstall windows on a PC you're formatting the drive on PC1 and reinstalling it on PC1. Really the same exact process.