windows 7 activation

[jetfire]

i have a retail copy of win 7 with both 32 and 64 discs but have since been auto upgraded a while ago so stuck with ten.

now can i use the win7 64 os on a new computer and activate it or will it not work as i have upgraded now to 10 ?

[Saracen]

It would certainly not be a legitimate use to use Win10 based on an upgrade on one machine, and the older version the upgrade was from on a different machine.

At best, you could choose either/or, but not both. IIRC, there was at least a period within which you you revert from Win10 to Win7, but generally, once you upgrade, it invalidates the version you upgraded from.

This is one (of many) aspects of Win10 that resulted in my refusal to use it .... not least because of the change of rights within the W10 licence, and the obnoxious, pestering, pushy way MS went about trying to nudge us all onto 10.

Beyond thst, I can't help much precisely because I refused, and still refuse, point-blank, to be browbeaten into "upgrading" when, for me, several aspects of the Win10 offering made it anything but an "upgrade".

[adidan]

Auto upgraded? We were never auto upgraded. IIRC you could choose to upgrade and had 30 days to roll back to 7 if you didn't like it.

If I understand correctly, when upgrading to 10 you essentially no longer have 7 and effectively that Windows 7 written on your retail box now reads Windows 10.

You could never use 32 on one machine and 64 on another - retail was one version on one computer at any one time but you could move that between computers and then use 32 or 64 afresh.

Well, that's how I understand it.

Edit: I may have just reworded what Saracen wrote, forgive me - it's early and it's Christmas

[jetfire]

well ill just have to buy a new os then if i cant use it on another pc thanks for the info

[BobF64]

The way it has been for a very long time.

I believe it works as follows -
OEM is "this PC, only this PC for as long as the hardware matches Microsofts criteria".
OEM + upgrade (there are only retail upgrades) is as OEM but with "its now only the upgraded version".
Neither can be moved to a new PC, and changing hardware in current PC might invalidate licence.

Retail is "this PC, in one architecture, but you may permanently move it to new or significantly upgraded hardware".
Retail + upgrade is as Retail but you can only use the version you upgraded to.

In all upgrade scenarios, you are required to keep the original OS media/licence if you had it, through whatever upgrade chain you followed, or your licence is technically invalid.

[Millennium]

Meh that's great. I reckon if you've paid for windows in the last 1-2 years or whatever, sure, load windows. Deal with any legal ramification safe in the understanding that you did contribute to this project / subject recently and it's likely to be a good enumeration.

Having said that my Windows 10 is legit off my paid Win 8. No problem with this, windows has been excelling for any number of years now.

edit: don't subvert windows really. It's not a good idea. Get some lame quasi legal key or whatever. At least you paid any number of devs

[Saracen]

The way it has been for a very long time.

I believe it works as follows -
OEM is "this PC, only this PC for as long as the hardware matches Microsofts criteria".
OEM + upgrade (there are only retail upgrades) is as OEM but with "its now only the upgraded version".
Neither can be moved to a new PC, and changing hardware in current PC might invalidate licence.

Retail is "this PC, in one architecture, but you may permanently move it to new or significantly upgraded hardware".
Retail + upgrade is as Retail but you can only use the version you upgraded to.

In all upgrade scenarios, you are required to keep the original OS media/licence if you had it, through whatever upgrade chain you followed, or your licence is technically invalid.

It's been a while since I looked, and prior to W10 I would have agreed with all that. But, IIRC, one of the effects of upgrading to W10 (as always) is acceptance of the new licence terms (so always read them) and part of that was some fancy legalese that effectively locked even full retail W7 licences to a W10 licence on the new computer. Since the of the reasons I had several pre-10 full retail licences was the ability to move it computer to computer.

I completely agree about a single W7 licence, even with 32 and 64 bit versions, only ever being valid on ONE computer at a time. The licence permitted 32-bit OR 64-bit, on a single PC. You could move different PC, but had to remove from the original. You could take 32-bit off PC-1 and put either 32-bit of 64-bit onto PC-2.

But you couldn't (legally) put 32-bit on PC-1 and 64-bit on PC-2 from a single retail licence.

There were many other reasons I didn't upgrade to W10 as well. It wasn't just this. But this was a straw on the proverbial camel's back.


@jetfire .... do you need to 'buy' a new OS? I found, after a bit but not as much as I expected, of a learning curve, LINUX was a credible alternative. Of course, it depends on what you need, but it may be an option.

[jetfire]

i need a new pc as the dual xeon is now well past it for 4k stuff just cant believe how much the price on everything has gone up so fast so just trying to save a few quid.

tho the budget has gone out the window lol
https://www.scan.co.uk/3xs/configura...k-3xsgamer1080
32gb of ram and 500g nvme drive.

and wtf is it with rgb lights

[BobF64]

It's been a while since J looked, and prior to W10 I would have agreed wuth all that. But, IIRC, one of the effects of upgrading to W10 (as always) is acceptance ofcthe new licence terms (so always read them) and part of that was some fsncy legalese that effectively locked even full retail W7 licences to a W10 licence on the new computer.

That is quite possibly the case if you upgraded with the free upgrade offer.

[Saracen]

That is quite possibly the case if you upgraded with the free upgrade offer.

Ummm. Good point.

From recollection, which I admit is a bit fuzzy on timing, I looked both at the free upgrade and the paid-for retail version and I thought this applied to both. But it's very possible I'm wrong.

I eventually, and reluctantly, dumped the Win10 optoon entirely for other reasons, at which point my interest in the niceties of licencing dropped to somewhere between academic interest and no interest at all.

[Eacerasty]

Ummm. Good point.

From recollection, which I admit is a bit fuzzy on timing, I looked both at the free upgrade and the paid-for retail version and I thought this applied to both. But it's very possible I'm wrong.

I eventually, and reluctantly, dumped the Win10 optoon entirely for other reasons, at which point my interest in the niceties of licencing dropped to somewhere between academic interest and no interest at all.

At first, I chose the first edition, free version.But I failed to activate it, I couldn't access my account, I had to reset it. and now I'd rather spend some money on it.This will avoid a lot of trouble.

[RaTTuS]

if you upgraded then you cannot use the old key on a new machine.
You will be better off using win10 IMO on a new machine anyway, you can install it all and keep it upto date without having a key , you do end up with a watermark [activate your copy of win 10] on the screen and you are unable to change some settings until you do.

[scaryjim]

... From recollection, which I admit is a bit fuzzy on timing, I looked both at the free upgrade and the paid-for retail version and I thought this applied to both. But it's very possible I'm wrong. ...

Microsoft were incredibly fuzzy about the whole thing. There were at least one or two public statements to the effect that if you used the free upgrade offer to upgrade a retail version of Windows it would retain the retail status - i.e. you could transfer the license to a new computer. I certainly had no issues at all installing Windows 10 on a replacement computer and activating it with my retail Windows 7 key; it fetched its activation status automatically and activated fully. So at least in terms of the technical activation it operated as you'd expect from retail Windows.

That doesn't, of course, mean that MS couldn't still turn round and claim that legally the license isn't valid, but the fact that the licensing servers will activate using retail Win 7 keys suggests it's treating the upgraded Win 10 license as 'retail' under the Win 7 definitions.

[Saracen]

Microsoft were incredibly fuzzy about the whole thing. There were at least one or two public statements to the effect that if you used the free upgrade offer to upgrade a retail version of Windows it would retain the retail status - i.e. you could transfer the license to a new computer. I certainly had no issues at all installing Windows 10 on a replacement computer and activating it with my retail Windows 7 key; it fetched its activation status automatically and activated fully. So at least in terms of the technical activation it operated as you'd expect from retail Windows.

That doesn't, of course, mean that MS couldn't still turn round and claim that legally the license isn't valid, but the fact that the licensing servers will activate using retail Win 7 keys suggests it's treating the upgraded Win 10 license as 'retail' under the Win 7 definitions.

You could well be entirely correct, and I 100% agree about the fuzziness.

Part of my problem is that my decision to dump Windows (going forward) wasn't a snap decision, but a lengthy process. It started with Win 8 and the Start menu farce, and built from there. In fact, there were already hints that MS was going in a direction I would not accept from the Kinect 'always-on' business onwards. In the W8/8.1/10 timeframe, some of the 'often contradictory' public statements made about changing direction, changing how Windows was "monetised", with a series of products coming out in "subscription" versions, like Office.

So, over about a 2 year period, I asked myself .... If not Windows, then what?

And if Linux, then it meant preserving some of my home-office functions on legacy machines, and some on new hardware and perhaos Linux, going forward. Some of this was easy. Much of my office (small 'o') , which had been done on MS Office since I switched from Word 6 and Lotus 123, could be done with OpenOffice/Libre just as well as with MS Office. But other bits require legacy hardware support and in one case, legacy software support for an ancient database/CRM system in which I have a suite of custom developed (by me) applications and databases. Changing those is seriously not going to happen.

That leaves me stuck with a mix of old and newer hardware, legacy printers, scanners, etc, and a lengthy process of building a blend that works for me.

The whole process of feasibility study and implementation took a good two years. At various points during that, I acquired and read the W10 licences, both for the free upgrade and, later on and once available, retail licences.

But now, a few years even further on, it's fuzzy in my mind as to exactly which licence said what, and when I read it. And, of course, having decided to abandon Windows beyond maintaining some of my machines as W7, and even XP, I rather lost interest ib W10, and so assigned a low memory priority to it in my brain. It's probably floating in there someewhere, but I scrubbed and reused my mental Win20 indexes.