win 7 unvalidated itself

So by the subject line of "guess" you're not 100% sure? If you were a bettin' knda guy what would you lay the odds at that that is the issue and I need to pay more stupid money to microsoft to reunlock something I already own?

You own a license to run it on the Acer. That license doesn't include running on a Compaq. If you would have wanted that you should have bought the retail version of Windows 7 in stead of the OEM version. But you didn't (I suppose).

Kees

This is the kind of shady business practice that makes microsoft so hated by so many people. I can truly understand the need to make sure people dont make 4000 copies and give them away to family and friends but *&(^@!^ I own this copy! Its only one one hard drive that I am using with this copy of windows. It came with the brand new laptop that I killed. Microsoft should look into serializing each copy so that if the serial # comes up on multiple mac addresses a warning can be issued then a lockout if needed. Simply moving the OS to a new machine and no longer using the old machine should not invalidate the copy.Thank you to both of you for your time in answering. Linux is looking better and better.

I can only guess you don't know how discounted this OEM versions can be. Someone went to the trouble to get a full refund and netted 15 bucks for the license.

That's in line with my numbers when I was involved in getting OEM licenses years ago.

That's why you can get Windows for cheap bundled with the machine. It's a limited license and well, not a bad idea.

No one wants to pay for the full license as when the machine dies few move the OS to another machine.

I think you are new to this area so give yourself time to learn about all this.
Bob

Thank you for taking the time to explain it.

The reason why your version came back as "not genuine" is because when you threw the hard drive into another laptop the information that signed up to windows with the oem key was different and when you did one of windows updates it checked for that information WAMOOOO your version is fake (All that has happened is windows doesn't recognize the system you are running on). What you need to do is re-install the windows on the the compaq by trying the disc that came with your acer, or getting a hold of the oem version for compaq they sale them on ebay as "Only Disc". Hoped this helped. Jeremy

Um no... He wasn't mislead. OEM versions of Windows do not have transfer rights. They live and they die with whatever hardware they were first activated on. It's all right there in the license agreement 99.9999% of us never even so much as skim.

Now, even assuming the OP took the Acer restore discs and tried using them on a Compaq, it still wouldn't work. WGA would still flag it as a pirated copy, and that's ON TOP of the mess of drivers for the hardware on the Acer unit being completely different from the Compaq unit.

There's also the technical issue of volume OEM license keys are activated based on a BIOS check. Try and install a copy of an OS from an Acer disc on anything that isn't an Acer system, it will prompt you to enter in the product code. Yes, there are ways around that, but those would be both a violation of the OEM license and quite probably the DMCA or its counterpart in most western nations.

I would strongly suggest that you go actually read the Windows OEM license agreement before you ever speak about it again. It also wouldn't hurt to know a little about how volume license keys work. The only misleading that has gone on so far in this discussion, has been your post. It may have been well intentioned, but that's what they say about the road to h3ll.