Windows License Key

[rjundi]

My two older computers(T500 & Lenovo u460) went from dog slow/not used to installing a $60 PNY 120GB SSD making them snappy and quick for wife & kids.

I own Win 7 pro upgrade (from XP) and Home>Pro licenses. I also had the license on a sticker long worn off the buttom of each computer. That is my issue, I cannot locate it for one of the computers

Questions:
1) Does Microsoft know or care if you load two of the same Windows License? I ask becuase I was able with a cheat get the Win 7 Pro Upgrade to install cleanly.

2) Microsoft is stating my only option is to load Win 7 home(missing license) and then go to Win 7 Pro (I own upgrade).

Can I just do 1 above again. I own all this stuff anyway. Also does MS$ count corporate keys or is that the honor system (I have one).

 

[The_Eric]

In regards to Q1,I'm quite certain that they both know and care. They tend to frown upon sharing of license keys between computers.

I wonder if an XP key would work? I still have an XP product key floating around that you can have. I have fully transitioned away from M$ products. If you think it would work, send me a message and I'd be glad to give it out.

 

[The_Jeff]

If you can still boot the old installation there are utilities that can retrieve and unencrypt the existing license key.

 

[rjundi]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
If you can still boot the old installation there are utilities that can retrieve and unencrypt the existing license key.


Cool thanks I have a $10 rig(cables) to run the former drive as USB. I think it likely will boot thanks!

SSD btw is awesome. The computers went from 50MB/s to 200-250MB/s read/write. They fly.

On M$ I could care less if they frown on anything. As long as the product works. They should be happy someone is using their OS and not jumping off to iOS, Android, Linux as a home user. I get it as a business and making money. The use case here is flash games, internet browsing and pictures indexing for my wife. Not profiting.

 

[Rand]

yes install old drive, boot from it. run utility to recover key

email it to yourself or similar.

 

[dparm]

Originally Posted By: rjundi

1) Does Microsoft know or care if you load two of the same Windows License? I ask because I was able with a cheat get the Win 7 Pro Upgrade to install cleanly.

2) Microsoft is stating my only option is to load Win 7 home(missing license) and then go to Win 7 Pro (I own upgrade).



Yes, and yes. It's a violation of the EULA and activation will fail.

And yes, they do count corporate VLKs (volume license keys). Companies get audited on that stuff all the time.