Would it be possible to buy a new laptop with windows 8 pro installed and downgrade down to win 7 pro. My problem is that i do not have a win 7 pro key. Is it possible to get this to work still? Anyone know? I'm a total noob here and the above is slightly above my head. I saw a few links online which i can't post here since my post count isn't high enough that they allow downgrading but i'm not sure i understand it enough or if it would in fact work without a win 7 pro key. My view of it was that I would be able to do so as long as I had the iso (which i can download from the internet). Not entirely sure if i can just activate it using the win 8 key though or I would still need to provide a win 7 key. Any ideas? Thanks
Yes and no. You can't use your Windows 8 product key to activate Windows 7. According to Microsoft's downgrade guide, the following must take place: For an OEM purchased machine, you've essentially got two choices; a) chase up the manufacturer of your machine for a Windows 7 product key/license, although this will technically invalidate your Windows 8 license, or b) install Windows 7 using Daz's loader. This, ironically, is the one situation in which using Daz's loader ISN'T illegal, as by the downgrade rights, you're licensed to install and run a copy of Windows 7. It also has the benefit of not cancelling your Windows 8 license, which means when you realise that you've nothing to gain from staying on 7, you can re-install 8.
Thanks. can you point me to the right place to learn more about Daz's loader for Windows 7? By using that would that mean my windows 7 would be considered genuine?
Funny thought: Can you get a valid Win7 license from the free WMC key? Where do you actually "obtain a corresponding product key for the version of Windows that is eligible for downgrade."?
No, the downgrade rights only apply to pre-installed OEM licenses and Software Assurance I'm afraid. The WMC is a retail add-on key, and isn't even valid ITSELF without a corresponding legitimate Windows 8 license. I should also add that technically, any Windows 8 upgrade license (both the 39.99, 14.99 and full retail upgrade - unsure of price) isn't actually legally valid without a Windows 7 license; if your Windows 7 license is an upgrade license, IT'S not valid without an XP or Vista license, and so on. The line between what's legally accepted and what's GENERALLY accepted, however, is a matter of common sense. In the old days (read: Windows 95 era), the motto for multi-PC houses, for example, was, "as long as you have _A_ license for Windows somewhere, that'll do"; regardless of how many machines you had it installed on. In our house we had 4 PCs with Windows 95 (a mixture of 95A, 95B and 95 OSR2.5), and a single Windows 95 upgrade license between them; if I remember rightly, we DID get checked once, and it was accepted as covering us, despite clauses to the contrary in the EULA.