How to tell if a Windows disc is registered?

reniannen

I volunteer in a charity shop and someone has handed in a copy of Windows Vista Ultimate. It's not fully sealed but doesn't look used. Is there any way I can tell if the disc has already been registered or not so we can sell it?

Thanks in advance

Toxteth_OGrady

The disk is unimportant. It's the license key that you pay for. Does it have a key printed on the packaging?

Meepster

As far as I'm aware, only SEALED copies of any Windows operating system may be re-sold...

The only way to find out if it is currently linked to a computer would be to contact Microsoft and at the same time you could clarify what I've said above...

reniannen

Yes it has a product key inside, sorry I'll rephrase then, can I tell if the product key has been registered?

edit - thanks meepster I'll look into contacting them then. Would be a shame not to be able to get some money from it

dogmaryxx

reniannen wrote: »

Yes it has a product key inside, sorry I'll rephrase then, can I tell if the product key has been registered?

edit - thanks meepster I'll look into contacting them then. Would be a shame not to be able to get some money from it

Waste of time/money as they will only tell you if it's legit not if it's been registered.

reniannen

oh well that's that then Thanks for your help

easyhost

reniannen wrote: »

oh well that's that then Thanks for your help

phone microsoft for their advice

Trinitrotoluene

Once the seal is broken you cannot resell it.

JasX

Complete uninformed garbage advice.

What matters is if the license is a RETAIL one or OEM. RETAIL ones typically come in distinct retail packaging (ie a nice box with grey cover and rounded edge in this case.)

Crucially RETAIL copies come withw a fully transferable and resaleable license

OEM licenses are one use only on one machine and can never be re-used or resold.

it might cause some problems for a customer if someone else has gotten a copy of the key and is illicitly using it but its a pretty strong case that you are the rightful license user if you have the COA (original sticker with the license key printed on).

I've resold RETAIL licensed copies of windows when I'm done with them on ebay several times in the past -when you try to list you get a big red warning ebay has from microsoft spelling out exactly which licenses can be and under what circumstances you can transfer/resell a copy of windows.

OP
-Ignore the above advice about sealing/unsealing, its complte tosh from people with no idea what they're talking about and have probably never looked at a MS Windows EULA (End User License Agreement) anyway

-If its a retail copy AND you have the original/genuine sticker with the license key on it you should be perfectly within your rights to sell it

-if someone has pirated the license key and sold on the COA microsoft do tend to sort it out eventually (you need to phone them to do the authorisation, might even issue a new key under some circumstances)

-good news is 2nd hand windows retail licenses tend to hold value pretty well, they fetching around £50 for 2nd hand vista ultimate RETAIL copies on ebay about now (if boxed with COA, start it at 99p and you'll get plenty of interest) and they do a brisk trade :j