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General discussion

Are these Windows 7 disks legal?

Sep 6, 2010 9:35PM PDT

I received an email from someone who asked me a question about upgrading Vista to Windows 7. The message is below;

Mark
==================

Was looking through the CNET forums about Windows 7 and came across some of your posts and was hoping you could help me out.

In late November of 2009 I purchased four Dell computers for my business, all of which came with Windows Vista loaded and the product key code sticker on the outside of the computers stated Windows Vista as well. Dell then sent me four Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit Edition discs, each in a plain white envelope. Dell said that I qualified for them because my purchase was right at the time Windows 7 was coming out but not yet on some of their systems when ordering.

The problem is, these don't have product key's with them. It is just a disc in a white envelope x 4. I called Dell and of course, it was like pulling teeth and could not get an answer out of them. I have heard that these Window 7 discs won't work because once I reformat my Dell systems, and load these on, it will ask for a product key, but the key I already have on my systems were for Vista, not Windows 7 so I leery to reformat.

Do you know if these Windows 7 discs that I was sent will work on a Dell system without a product key? I can't get anywhere with Dell and gave up but I have these four discs sitting here in their sealed envelopes not sure what to do.I didn't think about calling Microsoft and seeing if they could supply four product key codes.

Any help would be appreciated, thank you.

Discussion is locked

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They should work
Sep 6, 2010 11:33PM PDT

They should work just fine. Dell modifies the installer in one subtle, but important, way. It runs a small program around the time you'd be asked to enter in a product key and activate. If it detects a Dell BIOS, it will automatically activate the copy. If it detects anything else, you will be prompted to enter in a product key.

So as long as the person can verify that they were indeed sent by Dell, and not some third party, there shouldn't be a problem.

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(NT) Thanks Jimmy.
Sep 7, 2010 5:49AM PDT
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thank you!
Sep 7, 2010 4:30PM PDT

Thanks Mark and Jimmy for the responses, I appreciate you taking the time to help answer my question.

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Microsoft offered free upgrades
Mar 18, 2011 4:37AM PDT

to Windows 7 on systems purchased with Vista after a certain date. They do that with every new release of window. It helps the the vendors to get rid of their machines with the older OS's and interupt sales for the vendors.