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Is my OEM version of Windows 7 genuine?

1246

Comments

  • gterr
    gterr Posts: 555 Forumite
    2 x 1GB RAM DDR2 SoDIMM modules £11.99

    Won't cost anything to fix in this case, as you bought them in good faith.

    First stage is to reinstall Windows, but you'll need an optical drive capable of burning to DVD(and a couple of blank DVD media) or a USB thumb drive with a capacity of at least 4GB.

    Thanks Nifty.
    We have another PC with a DVD writer, and these laptops have DVD Roms. Would that suffice?

    Edit: and a USB portable hard drive, come to think of it.

    I am going away for 10 days starting tomorrow night, so would prefer to delay operations until I return. But I could at least get the RAM ordered.

    Can I contact you when I return?

    Many thanks to everyone for help with this.
  • NiftyDigits
    NiftyDigits Posts: 10,459 Forumite
    Jivesinger wrote: »
    Incidentally I have just been looking at a laptop which has no COA sticker... and is running a different version of Windows to the one which it was built for... and is totally legit because it's my work laptop and I know my organisation will be licensed to put on a corporate build.

    Since the OP's laptop is running Windows 7 Professional, which I think is the business-oriented version, and is a Latitude which is the more business-oriented Dell range, my guess is these are corporate PCs which were installed with Windows 7 on a perfectly legitimate basis and have been sold off.

    (Unless the info in Nifty's PM says different.)

    Having said that, even if this is true, I'm not sure whether the corporate Win7 licence is still valid when sold on.

    It does say different. ;) It's not a corporate key.

    Have a look at your laptop and check if it see that it is activated at the bottom of the Control Panel > System page.
  • NiftyDigits
    NiftyDigits Posts: 10,459 Forumite
    gterr wrote: »
    Thanks Nifty.
    We have another PC with a DVD writer, and these laptops have DVD Roms. Would that suffice?

    Edit: and a USB portable hard drive, come to think of it.

    I am going away for 10 days starting tomorrow night, so would prefer to delay operations until I return. But I could at least get the RAM ordered.

    Can I contact you when I return?

    Many thanks to everyone for help with this.

    You could get started now, won't take long. Can do both within the hour.
  • gterr
    gterr Posts: 555 Forumite
    You could get started now, won't take long. Can do both within the hour.

    Really?? OK then!
  • NiftyDigits
    NiftyDigits Posts: 10,459 Forumite
    Click here to begin the download of Windows 7 Professional SP1-U ISO (Refresh) 32 bit

    Download it to the machine with the DVD burner. Do you have blank DVDs?
  • NiftyDigits
    NiftyDigits Posts: 10,459 Forumite
    Is the machine with the DVD burner with XP, Vista or Windows 7?
  • earthstorm
    earthstorm Posts: 2,134 Forumite
    There will be a need for a clean install regardless.

    no does not if you already have win 7 installed its just saying the licence is invalid, so not genuine. add the genuine key and it becomes a genuine copy. this is all i had to do when i had the issue although i had installed a genuine Dell win 7 pro install, just my PC had vista key/COA, so as soon as dell gave me win 7 key i just had to add the new key
  • NiftyDigits
    NiftyDigits Posts: 10,459 Forumite
    earthstorm wrote: »
    no does not if you already have win 7 installed its just saying the licence is invalid, so not genuine. add the genuine key and it becomes a genuine copy. this is all i had to do when i had the issue although i had installed a genuine Dell win 7 pro install, just my PC had vista key/COA, so as soon as dell gave me win 7 key i just had to add the new key


    Please stop annoying me. :D

    That is your machine, not the machine of the OP.
  • NiftyDigits
    NiftyDigits Posts: 10,459 Forumite
    earthstorm wrote: »
    no does not if you already have win 7 installed its just saying the licence is invalid, so not genuine. add the genuine key and it becomes a genuine copy. this is all i had to do when i had the issue although i had installed a genuine Dell win 7 pro install, just my PC had vista key/COA, so as soon as dell gave me win 7 key i just had to add the new key


    I know that you are try to be helpful, but you are only likely to confuse the OP.
    If one has a modified copy of an OS it is simply best to replace it with a known quantity.

    Has the OP complained of an 'invalid licence' message? That should tell you that it is not the same issue. So don't assume that the solution is the same.
  • NiftyDigits
    NiftyDigits Posts: 10,459 Forumite
    earthstorm wrote: »
    You tell me this



    but then you do the same thing with links

    It's a direct link from the official Microsoft distributor. Again, you don't understand the problem, so leave it.
    You are just cluttering the thread and making it more difficult for the OP to follow my instruction.
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