Using OEM HP Windows 7 Home Premium key to activate Retail Windows 7 Home Premium?

Discussion in 'Windows 7' started by wintertime, Dec 26, 2010.

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  1. wintertime

    wintertime MDL Novice

    Dec 26, 2010
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    #1 wintertime, Dec 26, 2010
    Last edited: Dec 26, 2010
    Hey,

    I recently bought a new HP laptop and as many of you know, HP is horrible when it comes to preinstalled bloatware so I'd like to wipe everything clean and install a fresh copy of windows 7 home premium.

    So the question is, is it possible to use the key that's on the side of my laptop to activate a retail copy of windows 7 home premium that I got off the net? From what I've heard, it is, but I'll have to call Microsoft? Does anyone have any experience with that?

    Thanks & happy holidays guys.
     
  2. wintertime

    wintertime MDL Novice

    Dec 26, 2010
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    #2 wintertime, Dec 26, 2010 (OP)
    Anyone? Sorry for the bump, but I really need to find an answer asap.
     
  3. ambidav

    ambidav MDL Guru

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    #3 ambidav, Dec 27, 2010
    Last edited: Dec 27, 2010
  4. wintertime

    wintertime MDL Novice

    Dec 26, 2010
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    #4 wintertime, Dec 27, 2010 (OP)
    Perfect! Just what I was looking for; thanks a lot, ambidav. One more thing though, where can I get the certificate? I'm guessing it's stored somewhere on my windows partition?

    Btw, out of curiousity, is it legal to do this?
     
  5. FreeStyler

    FreeStyler MDL Guru

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    #5 FreeStyler, Dec 27, 2010
  6. ambidav

    ambidav MDL Guru

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    #6 ambidav, Dec 27, 2010
    Perfectly Legal!! because you dont need to mod your bios! as your bios already has slic 2.1 :)
     
  7. wintertime

    wintertime MDL Novice

    Dec 26, 2010
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    #7 wintertime, Dec 27, 2010 (OP)
    You guys are awesome. Really. Thanks A LOT! :) *waiting for X15-65733.iso to finish downloading*
     
  8. wintertime

    wintertime MDL Novice

    Dec 26, 2010
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    #8 wintertime, Dec 27, 2010 (OP)
    Btw, what's the difference between this activation method and the one that you can read about on mydigitallife.net/2009/09/24/how-to-backup-and-restore-windows-7-and-server-2008-r2-activation-status-activate-offline-on-reinstall/ ? Other than one being really simple and the other a pain in the a.
     
  9. Dissonance

    Dissonance MDL Junior Member

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    #9 Dissonance, Dec 27, 2010
    Last edited: Dec 27, 2010
    That's for a retail install (different steps). Because you bought an OEM PC, your Windows uses a different activation method (Windows looks for the HP Code in your bios + the certificate + the key). Since the code in your bios will still be there after you reinstall windows, you just need to backup the certificate and key and then put them back in after the reinstall.

    Also yes it is legal because you got a Windows license from HP (should be a sticker on the computer saying this). All your doing is reinstalling that copy and dumping the bloatware in the process.
     
  10. saratdusta

    saratdusta MDL Novice

    Dec 30, 2010
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    #10 saratdusta, Dec 30, 2010
    what will happen if i re-install the pre-installed OS from notebook manufacture with the different oem OS version (such home premium v6 to v3), and does the certification will match with the new fresh installed OS even in the same oem os version? will u mind to give me some tutorial on it?

    many thanks before.
     
  11. alextheg

    alextheg MDL Expert

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    #11 alextheg, Dec 30, 2010
    Stop hovering to collapse... Click to collapse... Hover to expand... Click to expand...
  12. Kamar

    Kamar MDL Junior Member

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    #12 Kamar, Jan 3, 2011
    thanks for the excellent utility.
     
  13. Tito

    Tito Super Mod / Adviser
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    #13 Tito, Oct 18, 2011
    Why bumping such old threads with repeated info??