Reinstall an upgraded Win7 on a Dell PC?

Discussion in 'Windows 7' started by harrismail, Oct 26, 2010.

  1. harrismail

    harrismail MDL Member

    Mar 28, 2010
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    Question...

    If I have a new Dell PC with Win 7 Home Premium is it possible to do a clean install of Windows 7 Ultimate with a Dell install CD/DVD and be genuine?

    Will the Windows 7 validation mechanism know that the PC should only have Home Premium? or will the Ultimate be fully accepted as valid?
     
  2. urie

    urie Moderator
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    May 21, 2007
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  3. harrismail

    harrismail MDL Member

    Mar 28, 2010
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    Yes but if I use the anytime upgrade I will have to pay for it?

    What I really meant was if I had a genuine Dell PC with Windows 7 Home Premium installed and legitimately activated - can I simply replace the hard drive and install Windows 7 Ultimate from a Dell Ultimate restore disk or Dell OS recovery disk - if you see what I mean?

    Will that work or will the activation complain that the version isn't somehow the correct one that was meant for that PC?
     
  4. Phazor

    Phazor MDL Expert

    Sep 1, 2009
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    Microsoft wants you to pay for it, of course. You can, however, perform the upgrade without paying for it if your BIOS is SLIC 2.1 and you dont mind using a not entirely legit system. In that event, all you have to do is enter the Ultimate SLP Key.

    Technically you can install anything you want, its again boiling down to legality vs. technical possibilities. Your PC doesnt care what OS it executes and Windows doesnt care what PC it runs on either as long as it is properly activated. Whether this activation is legit or not is entirely your call.
     
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  5. harrismail

    harrismail MDL Member

    Mar 28, 2010
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    So what your saying is that (for example) with a Dell PC installed with XP Home you could happily install a clean XP Pro without any "activation" issues at all (because the hardware wouldn't care what flavour XP was installed as long as it came from a Dell install disk)

    So I think what your saying is that if you do the same with Windows 7 this approach won't work as the OS doesn't just rely on hardware but an individual serial as well as a hardware match.

    Is that right or am I overcomplicating things?
     
  6. Phazor

    Phazor MDL Expert

    Sep 1, 2009
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    No, the hardware runs whatever OS you install, Windows, Linux, etcetera, the flavour and what install medium you use (Dell, Microsoft, Homebrew, etc.) is entirely irrelevant.

    No. The actual OS does not care about what hardware it runs on. The only thing that is hardware-dependent (sort of) is the OEM:SLP activation subsystem as it requires a SLIC21 table in the BIOS. This table can be emulated though, so technically you can activate via OEM:SLP even if there is no SLIC21 table in the BIOS.

    In other words; what OS/Flavour you install on your PC, and how you activate it, is entirely up to you...
     
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  7. urie

    urie Moderator
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    May 21, 2007
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    XP OEM SLP 1.0 requires SLP string in bios DMI area i,e "Dell System" , "Dell Computer" , "Dell Inc" it also needs OEMBIOS files and dell OEM SLP serial number to activate these are included on any dell OEM cd home or pro so when you install it checks Bios for those dell strings and if present it will pre-activate.

    Windows Vista uses SLP 2.0 and Windows 7 uses SLP 2.1 both need SLIC string in bios area + a matching DELL.XRM-MS certificate + dell OEM SLP serial number.

    You can use tool from forums called Slic Dump Toolkit to check your what dell SLIC string you have and certificate it can also tell you the SLP1.0 string it has for xp or use oembios.exe from xp section on forum.