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Ok basically, story goes i used to have vista on my desktop and i had to reinstall windows
A laptop i bought conveniently had a windows 7 CD so i used that to install windows on my desktop 30 days ago
Now im getting genuine nagware complaining at me so i guess its time to actually pay for this software
I live in the UK, im a uni student at southampton, and i have acess to a maestro debit card aswell as paypal/moneybookers to pay
A few questions
a> my laptop didnt have any kind of sticker or anything with a product key on it - i assume that nowadays windows is coded to be liscenced via the hardware (am i right)? What happens if i reinstall windows in the future on my laptop using that CD? Will i have to pay again? What happens if i format my laptop or anything like that?
b> what about if i decide to change some of my hardware on my desktop? If i pay for windows how am i going to be able to prove ive bought windows?
c> What is my best option for buying windows right now? Annoyingly their website doesnt accept maestro - money isnt too much of an issue but i would like to get a decent deal regardless (any discounts availiable for uk uni students?)
Ideally i would like to buy it online so i can get a product key or something and just use that whenever i install windows on this desktop (because i usually reinstall every now and then and i also might be formatting my hard drive every now and then also) - is there such an option
d> when i first installed windows on my desktop, it didnt ask for a product key or anything - whats up with that? Does windows 7 not use product keys? If i get a product key, how on earth am i going to enter it?
e> what happens if i don't validate? Atm i got a black desktop but what other functionality is going to disappear?
Thanks so much for any help you guys can give me i really appreciate it!
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Can't answer most of you questions really, but since you're a student:
Maybe your uni is participating in the MSDNAA, so you could get a product key for Win7 for free.
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hey mate!
it's great to know someone from tl.net is from the same uni as myself 
may i ask which school are you from? if u're from the ECS (school of electronics and computer science), you are entitled to two free copies of windows 7!
our uni is in fact participating in the MSDNAA, but as far as i know, only students and staffs from the ECS are given windows 7.
and, good luck in your exams next week!
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If you don't activate, IIRC Windows starts logging you out automatically every hour or so.
Windows 7 uses the same product key system as always, and you can enter a key from Control Panel > System, same as Vista. You're supposed to have one of those stickers somewhere on your laptop, period. As for reinstalling, the same key is supposed to work as long as there aren't any "significant" hardware changes (e.g. swapped motherboard).
So since you apparently can get Windows 7 for free off MSDN, that takes care of your desktop. Reinstalling on your laptop, though, you're going to have problems if you can't figure out what the laptop's key was.
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On May 23 2010 05:32 spinesheath wrote:
Can't answer most of you questions really, but since you're a student:
Maybe your uni is participating in the MSDNAA, so you could get a product key for Win7 for free.
Yup you can also get visual studio, office etc all for free.
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i checked your previous blog posts (cant resist my stalking nature). seems to me that u're from the maths department.. most asians tend to do maths for some reason. i'm not sure if you can get win7 for free (i think not).. maybe u can try contacting your school admin.
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On May 23 2010 05:49 Saketai wrote:
If you don't activate, IIRC Windows starts logging you out automatically every hour or so.
Windows 7 uses the same product key system as always, and you can enter a key from Control Panel > System, same as Vista. You're supposed to have one of those stickers somewhere on your laptop, period. As for reinstalling, the same key is supposed to work as long as there aren't any "significant" hardware changes (e.g. swapped motherboard).
So since you apparently can get Windows 7 for free off MSDN, that takes care of your desktop. Reinstalling on your laptop, though, you're going to have problems if you can't figure out what the laptop's key was.
My MSDN version of Windows 7 does not log me out every hour or so, in fact I haven't authenticated it for about a month. The only thing I noticed is that you get a black screen and the random 'pop-up' which minimizes SC2B -.-" this random minimize doesn't happen when I use War3 though for some odd reason. Bleh
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okay I re read your thing.
Your laptop came with a oem slp (system locked preinstalled) version of windows 7. It only works with motherboards that have a certificate that lets them use those keys.
If you google you can find the a key that will activate your laptop offline
If your desktop came preinstalled with vista it might have the same cert that will offline activate, but it might also be the wrong version.
There are ways of modding virtually any bios to activate like it was preinstalled with windows 7 but that would piracy!
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A CD key could be underneath the laptop battery (you have to take it out). I haven't installed Win7 myself on any of my own computers, so I don't know if they even have CD keys still.
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On May 23 2010 05:41 MrStorkie wrote:hey mate! it's great to know someone from tl.net is from the same uni as myself may i ask which school are you from? if u're from the ECS (school of electronics and computer science), you are entitled to two free copies of windows 7! our uni is in fact participating in the MSDNAA, but as far as i know, only students and staffs from the ECS are given windows 7. and, good luck in your exams next week!
hahaha thats awesome
nah im part of the maths department
Know any way i can get hold of a copy anyway?
also thanks for the tip about the battery ill check that in a sec
What will happen if i use the same key for my laptop as my desktop?
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dont know much about laptops but i built my computer then went to BESTBUY bought a cheap computer with windows 7, cloned the hard drive and returned the computer the next day. YAY somewhat of a hassle but FREE stuff FTW!!!
edit: so basically i took an install of windows 7 from a pre fab HP computer and its been running perfect (fully activated!!!) so im not sure how the hardware would make a difference but i could be completly wrong
oh and i stumbled upon this on lifehacker.com
http://lifehacker.com/5541935/jalapeno-keyfinder-retrieves-lost-serial-numbers
theres a link for the dl in the link.
gluck 
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EPT
