View Single Post
  #7  
Old July 5th 18, 10:42 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
VanguardLH[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 10,881
Default Buying Windows 7

Big Al wrote:

On 07/05/2018 04:28 PM, Big Al wrote:
On 07/05/2018 01:36 PM, Ed Cryer wrote:
I'm fed up with Windows 10 on a machine I bought.
I want Win7! I want Win7!

This site offers Win7 Pro for 13.99 GBP.
https://goo.gl/rBddg4

Has anybody bought this? Or does anyone know a better place?

Ed

Do you own a copy of Windows 7 already but don't have the CD?* The ISO
is readily available for free, all you need is the CD Key from your old
windows 7.** You never gave any info how you got win 10, I'm guessing an
upgrade from 7 or you got the machine that way.

One big issue with going from 10 to 7 on a preloaded machine is drivers.
*Investigate that first.** No drivers=No workie!

Me personally, I'm not secure with these sites selling $10 copies of
OSs.* They could be valid from trashed PCs.

I always shop places like Newegg.com in the US.

Ebay has a lot of them. I question a few of them after reading them,
they may be OEM and from one experience with OEM, it only works on the
PC it was installed on. Moving to another PC does not work as it looks
at the motherboard and verifies it's on the right machine. Dell is
famous for that.


A lot of those at eBay are Dell restore CDs. They're invalid for use on
anything other than a Dell but the sellers don't care and don't ask on
what computer those Dell-only restore CDs (OEM installs) will get used.
The usual excuse by the seller is they are selling media, not a license.
You still need a valid license to use the restore media. However, a
restore CD that notes "Dell Only" likely has usage restrictions from
Dell that it can only be used to restore a Dell computer, not just any
computer.

How do you know you want Windows 7 unless you have used Windows 7? Are
you going *back* to Windows 7? If so, where's your old license key for
Windows 7?

The product key shown on a sticker on the case is for a volume image of
the OS that gets copied onto thousands of computers by the OEM'er. They
don't validate every computer they manufacture. They copy an image
(fixed) onto each computer. They get to use the volume license. You do
not, so the product key shown on the sticker may not be valid for use by
you. Use something like Magic Jellybean or Belarc Advisor to get the
Windows 7 license key out of that instance of an install. That's the
one you get to reuse. You don't get to change from Home to Pro with
that license key. You'll have to get the same edition when getting the
install media as for what is applicable for the license.

Some eBay sellers are selling just the installation media (CD). That
means you still need a license key to use the OS. Some are selling just
the key and you must already have the installation media.

At one time, Microsoft had their own site to download the install ISO
files (that you burned onto a CD). I think Digital River was hosting
the ISO downloads. That's why anyone can distribute the installation
media; however, for the privilege you get to pay them for the
installation media or image when it used to be free from Microsoft.
This is like those places that will sell you gov't information that you
can get for free from the gov't.

Ooh, look what I found (as a URL link when I got the ISO image from
Microsoft):

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/soft...nload/windows7

You'll still need a legitimate product/license key. It is unclear if
you want to go back to Windows 7 you had before or you would be going to
a new OS that happens to be an older version of what you got stuck with
on a new pre-built (Windows 10).
Ads