I am unsure how many PCs you can activate with a retail key. I know it has to be more than 1 because people reinstall the OS, or get a new PC and install it on there, etc. I think there is a "waiting" period between each activation when activating online with the same retail key. I think that is why people use the phone activation... If anyone knows, that would be a good FYI for people...
My friend beta-tested Windows 7, got a Windows 7 Retail Key, and they told him, he could only activate Windows 7 once, using that key... That's why I asked.
msdn technet ten times over internet 25 over phone I'm glad it not me that did it I like my msdn to much to do something like that
As long as you all don't post keys I let the thread open.....watching carefully.... Retail keys are activating against M$ server! One click and they are blacklisted.......SLP keys are activating against SLIC at your bios, one click and you are................ activated.....
the other question many users here tell if you activate the retail key many times it will blacklist but now my question what happened when i purchase an retail ultimate key and work for an pc dealer and install and test Win7 on every pc i build?? will say i build 10 pcs a day install 10 times a day win7 with different hardware and activate win7 over inet or phone MS see that this key is daily activated but they cant blacklist them because i change my hardware twice a day and thats the thing i told an MS hotliner with my vista key and this key is stil vvalid since vista rtm
Well you obviously don't work for a pc dealer doesn't work that way you don't activate machines that you build you can use a key to install then your run sysprep and reseal the machine image the drive then when user gets machine it will as for serial number .This is not OEM SLP machines im talking about. As for retail version of windows vista you can transpher that to another machine but you must remove it from other machine because as yen said you activate through MS only one machine can be activated with a retail key.