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Buying Windows 7



 
 
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  #16  
Old July 6th 18, 04:29 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
VanguardLH[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 10,881
Default Buying Windows 7 - related question

slate_leeper aka Dan Z wrote:

My Win-7 was purchased as an OEM installation CD from Amazon. I bought
it legally, and have the CD. I installed it on my new (then) ASUS and
it works just fine.

Win-10 on my new Dell is a disaster. I would love to install my
much-customized Win-7 on it via restoring a disk image from the ASUS.
However I am sure that will result in an "unlicensed" installation.

Is there any way I can license it? I would be happy to pay MS for
another license for the Dell.


Lots of online articles about changing the license key for an existing
installation. You would copy your backup image to the other computer
and then change its license key to a legitimately purchased one.

https://www.lifewire.com/how-do-i-ch...ct-key-2624930

Just in case, make sure you save a backup image of your Windows 10 setup
should you decide to move back to it.
Ads
  #17  
Old July 6th 18, 05:20 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
Char Jackson
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Posts: 10,449
Default Buying Windows 7

On Thu, 5 Jul 2018 16:42:10 -0500, VanguardLH wrote:

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.


My Dell laptop was the other way around. The Windows key on the sticker
was my unique key. Belarc reported the generic Dell key.

--

Char Jackson
  #18  
Old July 6th 18, 07:30 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
Ed Cryer
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Posts: 2,621
Default Buying Windows 7

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



Thanks for all your comments. They seem very wise to me, and I'll heed them.
My main computer of choice runs under Win7. And it is stable, very
stable; it's been stable for years, never throws a wobbly, does what it
should and very pleasingly. It also runs some pretty modern hardware; a
bluray writer, a 4TB powered external HD, large memory sticks.
Viva Windows 7!

Ed
  #19  
Old July 7th 18, 12:57 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
slate_leeper
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 245
Default Buying Windows 7 - related question

On Fri, 6 Jul 2018 15:56:16 +0200, Heirloom wrote:

slate_leeper wrote:
On Thu, 5 Jul 2018 18:36:00 +0100, Ed Cryer
wrote:

I'm fed up with Windows 10 on a machine I bought.
I want Win7! I want Win7!


Me too!

My Win-7 was purchased as an OEM installation CD from Amazon. I bought
it legally, and have the CD. I installed it on my new (then) ASUS and
it works just fine.

Win-10 on my new Dell is a disaster. I would love to install my
much-customized Win-7 on it via restoring a disk image from the ASUS.
However I am sure that will result in an "unlicensed" installation.

Is there any way I can license it? I would be happy to pay MS for
another license for the Dell.

-dan z-



Have you tried contacting Dell?



Dell support has been no help on this. Their SupportAssist system
won't run because it is in the Program Files directory AND they asked
me to update it (which of course didn't work except to make it no
longer work at all.)

Besides, their support is on the Win-10 that came with it, not the
Win-7 I want to put on it.

-dan z-


--
Someone who thinks logically provides
a nice contrast to the real world.
(Anonymous)
  #20  
Old July 7th 18, 01:12 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
slate_leeper
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 245
Default Buying Windows 7 - related question

On Fri, 6 Jul 2018 10:29:19 -0500, VanguardLH wrote:

slate_leeper aka Dan Z wrote:

My Win-7 was purchased as an OEM installation CD from Amazon. I bought
it legally, and have the CD. I installed it on my new (then) ASUS and
it works just fine.

Win-10 on my new Dell is a disaster. I would love to install my
much-customized Win-7 on it via restoring a disk image from the ASUS.
However I am sure that will result in an "unlicensed" installation.

Is there any way I can license it? I would be happy to pay MS for
another license for the Dell.


Lots of online articles about changing the license key for an existing
installation. You would copy your backup image to the other computer
and then change its license key to a legitimately purchased one.

https://www.lifewire.com/how-do-i-ch...ct-key-2624930

Just in case, make sure you save a backup image of your Windows 10 setup
should you decide to move back to it.



Thank you for that info. It's the "legitimately purchased one" I
really need more info on. How can I directly ask MS this question?
Will they sell me one?

-dan z-


--
Someone who thinks logically provides
a nice contrast to the real world.
(Anonymous)
  #21  
Old July 7th 18, 01:23 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
Heirloom[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2
Default Buying Windows 7 - related question

slate_leeper wrote:
On Fri, 6 Jul 2018 15:56:16 +0200, Heirloom wrote:

slate_leeper wrote:
On Thu, 5 Jul 2018 18:36:00 +0100, Ed Cryer
wrote:

I'm fed up with Windows 10 on a machine I bought.
I want Win7! I want Win7!


Me too!

My Win-7 was purchased as an OEM installation CD from Amazon. I bought
it legally, and have the CD. I installed it on my new (then) ASUS and
it works just fine.

Win-10 on my new Dell is a disaster. I would love to install my
much-customized Win-7 on it via restoring a disk image from the ASUS.
However I am sure that will result in an "unlicensed" installation.

Is there any way I can license it? I would be happy to pay MS for
another license for the Dell.

-dan z-



Have you tried contacting Dell?



Dell support has been no help on this. Their SupportAssist system
won't run because it is in the Program Files directory AND they asked
me to update it (which of course didn't work except to make it no
longer work at all.)

Besides, their support is on the Win-10 that came with it, not the
Win-7 I want to put on it.

-dan z-



Did you ask them if they would sell you Win 7?
  #22  
Old July 7th 18, 02:12 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
Mayayana
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 6,438
Default Buying Windows 7 - related question

"slate_leeper" wrote

| Thank you for that info. It's the "legitimately purchased one" I
| really need more info on. How can I directly ask MS this question?
| Will they sell me one?
|

MS no longer sells Win7. The available sources
are mostly OEMs that have leftover disks/licenses
that they bought in bulk. You should be able to
use one of those, but you'd need to carefully research
the hardware to make sure you can get drivers
for Win7: Determine exactly what you have for
motherboard, sound, graphics, etc and then check
with those companies for Win7 drivers.

The problem with Dell, and the reason that it's
not a good idea to buy Dell products, is that they
package the whole system, making it opaque. On
the one hand, if you're in business and only use
Dell, getting a supported driver for a Dell product
is a convenient process. It's like the AOL of OEMs.
They hide the facts from you, but you also don't
need to know the facts as long as you tay with
their system.

But in your case the
downside of their system becomes clear. Since
all the drivers are repackaged by Dell, it's not
always feasible to cut out the Dell middleman and
get the real driver directly from the hardware maker.
In some cases, Dell parts might be custom-order,
not existing on the open market. And their driver
downloads are custom-wrapped versions of the
actual drivers. Just as Home Depot
might order 5 million drills from DeWalt and be selling
model DW385002 while DeWalt doesn't actually
acknowledge the existence of that model. They
make 5000, 5001 and 5005. Will a replacement part
fit 5002? Probably. But there's no way to be sure
of exactly what's different. In the same way that
Home Depot now supports (or doesn't) model 5002,
Dell makes you go to them for hardware support.


  #23  
Old July 7th 18, 08:17 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
VanguardLH[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 10,881
Default Buying Windows 7

Char Jackson wrote:

VanguardLH wrote:

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.


My Dell laptop was the other way around. The Windows key on the sticker
was my unique key. Belarc reported the generic Dell key.


Oops, yep, the other way around. The image is the same that gets puts
on thousands of computers so it has the pre-validated volume key. The
stickers get printed with different keys on them. The sticker won't
match the key in the image.

I need stronger coffee, or less interruptions.
  #24  
Old July 7th 18, 08:21 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
VanguardLH[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 10,881
Default Buying Windows 7 - related question

slate_leeper wrote:

On Fri, 6 Jul 2018 10:29:19 -0500, VanguardLH wrote:

slate_leeper aka Dan Z wrote:

My Win-7 was purchased as an OEM installation CD from Amazon. I bought
it legally, and have the CD. I installed it on my new (then) ASUS and
it works just fine.

Win-10 on my new Dell is a disaster. I would love to install my
much-customized Win-7 on it via restoring a disk image from the ASUS.
However I am sure that will result in an "unlicensed" installation.

Is there any way I can license it? I would be happy to pay MS for
another license for the Dell.


Lots of online articles about changing the license key for an existing
installation. You would copy your backup image to the other computer
and then change its license key to a legitimately purchased one.

https://www.lifewire.com/how-do-i-ch...ct-key-2624930

Just in case, make sure you save a backup image of your Windows 10 setup
should you decide to move back to it.


Thank you for that info. It's the "legitimately purchased one" I
really need more info on. How can I directly ask MS this question?
Will they sell me one?


You buy the key-only products from resellers, like those at Amazon or
eBay. I'd probably use eBay due to their buyer guarantee but after
researching the sellers and their histories.

As others have warned, make DAMN SURE you can get the drivers for your
hardware (motherboard, video card, printer, etc) BEFORE you switch to an
old OS. Many pre-builts are designed for a minimum version of the OS.
They don't provide drivers for older OS versions, especially for
unsupported older OS versions. Take an inventory of all your hardware.
Then start hunting around for were to find drivers for all that hardware
whether it be internal or external to the computer's case.
  #25  
Old July 7th 18, 08:31 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
J. P. Gilliver (John)[_4_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,679
Default Buying Windows 7

In message , VanguardLH
writes:
[]
I need stronger coffee, or less interruptions.


Fewer. (-:
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Her [Valerie Singleton's] main job on /Blue Peter/ was to stop unpredictable
creatres running amok. And that was just John Noakes.
- Alison Pearson, RT 2014/9/6-12
  #26  
Old July 8th 18, 12:08 AM posted to alt.windows7.general
Ken Blake[_5_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,221
Default Buying Windows 7

On Sat, 7 Jul 2018 20:31:16 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
wrote:

In message , VanguardLH
writes:
[]
I need stronger coffee, or less interruptions.


Fewer. (-:



Took the word of my fingers. g


  #27  
Old July 8th 18, 12:43 AM posted to alt.windows7.general
Char Jackson
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 10,449
Default Buying Windows 7

On Sat, 7 Jul 2018 14:17:31 -0500, VanguardLH wrote:

Char Jackson wrote:

VanguardLH wrote:

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.


My Dell laptop was the other way around. The Windows key on the sticker
was my unique key. Belarc reported the generic Dell key.


Oops, yep, the other way around. The image is the same that gets puts
on thousands of computers so it has the pre-validated volume key. The
stickers get printed with different keys on them. The sticker won't
match the key in the image.


I just thought I had an oddball PC here.

--

Char Jackson
  #28  
Old July 9th 18, 03:20 AM posted to alt.windows7.general
mike[_10_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,073
Default Buying Windows 7 - related question

On 7/7/2018 4:57 AM, slate_leeper wrote:
On Fri, 6 Jul 2018 15:56:16 +0200, Heirloom wrote:

slate_leeper wrote:
On Thu, 5 Jul 2018 18:36:00 +0100, Ed Cryer
wrote:

I'm fed up with Windows 10 on a machine I bought.
I want Win7! I want Win7!


Me too!

My Win-7 was purchased as an OEM installation CD from Amazon. I bought
it legally, and have the CD. I installed it on my new (then) ASUS and
it works just fine.

Win-10 on my new Dell is a disaster. I would love to install my
much-customized Win-7 on it via restoring a disk image from the ASUS.
However I am sure that will result in an "unlicensed" installation.

Is there any way I can license it? I would be happy to pay MS for
another license for the Dell.


I have no idea what I'm doin', so wait for one of the experts to
weigh in on this before you do anything.

There are two issues here.
What can you do?
What is legal/ethical?

I'll address only the first.

What I'd do is install win7 from the digital river
win7 generic install disk. That's by far the least
stressful. I haven't looked for one lately, but
they are likely available somewhere, but malware
is always a risk.

If you don't have access to a working win7 install disk...

Here's what I'd try.

If you have hundreds of gigabytes of stuff
(movies/music/databases/etc) on C:, this will
take a lot of offline storage. You can temporarily
move that stuff to offline storage, but you risk
screwing up anything you touch...stuff happens.

Backup your win10 system with macrium.
I use the menu option to "create an image of the partitions
required to backup and restore windows.
If you have other partitions, don't include them.
Just create the partitions and copy the data when everything else is done.
Save all your win10 drivers with DoubleDriver.
Save all this elsewhere.

On the win10 system, go into device manager
and write down all the vendor and device numbers
for your display and lan drivers. Wouldn't hurt
to do the same for other non-standard stuff like
card readers and bluetooth and and and.

Search the web for those vendor/device numbers
to see what win7 drivers are available and download them.
The most critical is the lan driver. You can't easily
install stuff if the lan ain't workin'.
I assume that the display will work in degraded mode.
If not, you're screwed.

DISCONNECT ALL YOUR NETWORK CABLES BOTH COMPUTERS!!!

Backup/image your win7 system with macrium.
Put a new drive in your win7 system.
Put the original win7 drive somewhere where you can't
accidentally grab it.
Macrium restore the win7 image you just made to the
new drive.
Boot the system and
sysprep the win7 system.
Backup the sysprepped win7 using the macrium rescue media.
Save the backup elsewhere.
Do not allow it to reboot.

Remove the hard drive from your win10 system and save
it somewhere you can't accidentally grab it.

Take the drive out of the win7 system and put it into the
win10 system.
At this point, you'll have the two original drives from
win7 and win10 in a safe place so you can't mess them up.

Boot the original win10 system with the sysprepped win7 hard drive.
It will go through the install menus and hopefully boot.

That should give you a working win7 system with some
activation grace period. Mine usually says 3 days,
but it also seems to depend on the number of times
you reboot it. I've had it lock up/expire in less than a day
if I rebooted a lot.

You have the grace period to look for drivers and decide if
it will work for you.

First place I'd look for missing drivers is the set you downloaded earlier
when you searched for drivers by ven/dev numbers. Then try the
DoubleDriver backup
you made from win10. Try vendor sites. Try win7 update.
I'd avoid any web site that
wants to install a program to assist you in keeping your drivers
up to date. Stated another way, never trust any site that
insists you install anything before you get the driver.
....AKA almost all of them. Watch the links that push buttons call.
Just cuz the box says "download" doesn't mean that it's downloading
an actual driver. There are far more
shady driver sites than trustworthy ones.

Note that any application that required a license key will not work.
Sometimes, you can re-enter the license key. Sometimes
you'd have to reinstall the app.
The app may or may not reinstall depending on whether they
kept records of your original install. In extreme cases,
your original win7 machine might have software invalidated
if you move it.

Use DoubleDriver to backup all your drivers at regular intervals.
You never know when the grace period will expire and you lose
everything. Keep a meticulous log of all the experiments.

ARCHIVE THE SYSPREPPED WIN7 BACKUP. YOU NEVER KNOW
WHEN IT MIGHT COME IN HANDY. If you make your macrium recovery
disk on a flash drive, you can even archive the sysprep to
that drive.

At some point, you're gonna have to decide if win7 works for
you on that computer.
If not, you're done.

DO NOT TRY TO ACTIVATE THE NEW SYSTEM WITH YOUR OLD KEY.
It may or may not work. It may or may not invalidate your
original system.
If you want to keep it, you move into legal territory.

There are easy/reliable ways to activate your win7 system. Some have
been mentioned already in this thread. That's your call.

If you purchase a win7 key, there's no way to tell whether
it will activate your particular installation. No way to tell if
it will activate any version installed from media obtained elsewhere.
No way to tell if
it's a legal/compliant key that MS won't invalidate in the future.

I've tried to accurately describe what I've done in the past.
My memory ain't what it used to be. I may have made a mistake.
There are a lot of moving parts. I've tried to describe a
sequence that has low risk of wrecking either or both systems.
You still have both the original hard drives.
If you try to skip steps, or do it without a third hard drive,
you risk bricking everything.


Again, wait for the experts to comment before you mess things up.

Are we having fun yet?

-dan z-



Have you tried contacting Dell?



Dell support has been no help on this. Their SupportAssist system
won't run because it is in the Program Files directory AND they asked
me to update it (which of course didn't work except to make it no
longer work at all.)

Besides, their support is on the Win-10 that came with it, not the
Win-7 I want to put on it.

-dan z-



  #29  
Old July 9th 18, 03:38 AM posted to alt.windows7.general
Paul[_32_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 11,873
Default Buying Windows 7 - related question

mike wrote:


What I'd do is install win7 from the digital river
win7 generic install disk. That's by far the least
stressful. I haven't looked for one lately, but
they are likely available somewhere, but malware
is always a risk.


DigitalRiver as a source, dried up several years ago.

Heidoc (URL Generator) generates a Windows 7 URL so
you can fetch the file from TechBench. Microsoft only
allows people with Retail license keys, to download
a Win7 ISO. Using the Heidoc facility, it will give
you a URL valid for 24 hours, and the download site
is actually Microsoft. At the current time, the Heidoc
developer is running in "hobbled" mode. Microsoft has
thrown up a road block, and the "rate" that URLs can be
generated is now strictly limited. It means, if using
the Heidoc tool today, you may have to wait a bit for
it to work out a URL. In the past, it worked instantly.
The Heidoc tool is tailor made for the Dell or HP
users of the world (the ones where the COA isn't worth
anything for this purpose of downloading media).

Since Heidoc doesn't store the file, and the file
comes from Microsoft, it should be good to go.

Paul
  #30  
Old July 9th 18, 04:04 AM posted to alt.windows7.general
mike[_10_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,073
Default Buying Windows 7 - related question

On 7/8/2018 7:29 PM, KenW wrote:
If Dell does not have Windows 7 drivers for your hardware, you are
stuck.


KenW

That's pessimistic.
Hardware vendor drivers sometimes exist.
 




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