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Old March 25th 18, 04:20 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
Paul[_32_]
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Posts: 11,873
Default Toshiba W-7 went dark

J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
In message , Patrick
writes:
On 25/03/2018 06:18, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
In message , HB writes:
[]
How many times does MS allow us to use the "once only" copy of the OS?
As many times as you like/need - as long as they're always on the
_same computer_. The "once only" is what Microsoft says about
_making_ those discs: It says something like "you will only have one
chance to make these discs". (_Why_ it does that limit, I don't
know, since they can only be used on that PC.)


Oops, I,ve just told HB that said would be a restriction (if at all)
of the OEM rather than MS. Still not to relevant at the moment.


What I've said above is just _my_ understanding of the situation -
though I'm fairly sure the "once only" _does_ apply to the number of
times a new computer offers to _make_ the discs. It was always my
_understanding_ that those discs were in some way tied to the computer
they were made on (presumably involving a hash of various hardware
parameters, and allowing for a _certain amount_ of change to enable
upgrade and/or repair), but I can't cite a source for that impression.

Does anyone know whether a system restored from such disc(s) requires
activation? Just curious; it's not going to be relevant to HB's
situation, as even if he could get the system running from the old disc,
the opportunity to make a rescue disc is probably long gone. In the
unlikely event he could get the system running from the old disc, I'd
say the first thing to do would be make an image onto his Seagate
external drive (which I would do with Macrium, but any means including
W7's built-in one would do).


OEM OSes auto-activate.

On Windows 7, an OEM copy of Windows 7 checks the information in the
SLIC table the BIOS passes to it.

On Win8 or Win10 OEM machines, an actual unique key is stored in the
BIOS as the ACPI MSDM table, and the OS sees this during startup or
something.

*******

Where actual work is required, is if a user grabs a Win7 Retail DVD
and installs on an OEM (Dell,Acer,HP) laptop. Then, the phone prompt
appears on thescreen, and you participate in an activation process.

I've done one of these on my laptop, using xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
off the COA sticker. You send a 56 digit number to Microsoft over your
touch tone phone, and Microsoft reads back a 56 digit code that you type
into the laptop. Is the method annoying ? Oh, yeah.

Paul
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