Can't think of how to word title. Feel free to change. - - - - - - - I've spent SO long on the phone/email to Dell & Microsoft, you'd think we were curing AIDS. Dell shipped machines with Win8, and Win8 discs. Not 7 and/or preinstalled, as I purchased. I ditched it anyway, and installed 7 from Microsoft image, USB key. At no step has Win7 accepted Win8 keys (fair-enough). I pushed-on, installed everything, updates, profiles, mapped drives... everything. Microsoft tech support doesn't like the keys, no matter what. Speak To Dell, they insist. CANNOT activate 7 with these keys. They're not downgradable keys. So Dell sent Win7 discs, and said "install with them, no license/key required" That's it?? These are all legit corp machines, but I can't start everything from scratch. Can I "fix" the activation problem without a trace? The owner will only sign-off if "It Never Happened".
You need to find out if you have slic 2.1 in bios also check dell disks for $OEM$ folder to see what is there perhaps certificate and oem:slp key. or if they sent individual disks for each machine they maybey retail.
Thanks a lot for the reply & info. I installed one on a machine yesterday. Fun and games, re: USB3 (no USB2 onboard)... but got it sorted. Took a lifetime to install from DVD (will rip & rufus to USB, I think)... but it's done, installed, activated... Never asked me, or needed manual intervention. I'll have a look for what you mention.
The key is 7 Pro OEM:SLP, not VLK. Together with SLIC 2.1 and an installed OEM Certificate it means instant activation of 7. The error occurs because this key cannot be used to activate online. Just use Windows Loader to install the key and missing OEM Certificate on the machines. Should there be a valid SLIC 2.1 in the firmware then the actual Loader installation is skipped.
As long as your BIOS has SLIC2.1, which it does, it will only install the cert and key. Like Carlos said it will not install the loader and you will be 100% legit.
I meant to ask... Is there any way to know, beforehand, what machines the SLP disc/image will work on? I'm surrounded by Dell's with unique license stickers attached. Curious if I can keep the license for something-else, and sell/give the machines with fresh SLP install instead.
Stop right there. The COAs and their keys belong to the machines' licenses, and you would be violating the license terms. As to the question, you can be 99.9% sure that each Dell machine that came with Windows 7 pre-installed has a valid SLIC 2.1 (or higher).
Hmm.. Leaves me with more questions, than answers. Since these latest machines didn't come with any COA, sticker, card, anything. Simply an "injected" (correct term?) key. Kinda off the point, as I'm asking about the Win7 machines. I suppose it's dancing the fine line, being legit & appearing legit (ie: won't break). By all the tools here, I thought those discussions were kosher here. My mistake. Thanks for all the info, it's appreciated.
If there's a SLIC in bios, the machine is definitely legit for a specific version of windows 7. If the machine had 8.1 normal, and has a SLIC 2.1 in bios, it's most likely Home Premium that it's licensed for. You CAN install ultimate instead, with dells SLP ultimate key, but that's not truly legit. If it came with 8.1 professional, and actually has a SLIC 2.1 we can assume it's licensed for ultimate, and installing ultimate for free is fine. If you told dell the truth about what machines you had, and dell sent the disks to you, then you are totally legit. there's nothing to hide. DO not worry about the COA sticker. the machine is genuinely genuine, cuz Dell says so. OEM licenses are not transferable. so you CANNOT remove the COA sticker legally. What's most likely the fcase with the machines DELL sent the disks for is that they were originally windows 7, and thus had SLIC 2.1 in bios, and when they made the windows 8 version, they tattooed windows 8 keys on them without removing the SLIC 2.1 info. So they just decided to be nice, send discs, and report what they did to MS.
I doubt very much if any of the windows 7 machines have windows 8 or 8.1 oem DM key in bios more likely windows 8 disks with serial i,e, upgrade disks.