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General discussion

Windows 7 licence

by kostas 6 Feb 20, 2011 3:16AM PST

Hello to everyone.Iwas buing a laptop a year ago that was preinstall windows vista.After a month my laptop haw a software error crash and i lose all my data photo movies etc.I was making recover my system after 2months.My question is if i have 1 pc 2 laptops can i share one OS EXAPLE WINDOWS 7.And second can i demand from a retail shop when i buing a new pc the dvd or cd after a crash? am i legal or not?thank for yours replies and your time...

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2 Posts

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No.

by MarkFlax Forum moderator Feb 20, 2011 3:24AM PST

Microsoft's Licensing has teeth. Only one Windows install per machine.

About your 2nd question, I can only say, try it. You may have better luck if you 'physically' walk in to a shop to buy a computer and ask for the setup disk for the Windows that is pre-installed on the computer. Trying to do this online, (online shopping), is nigh on impossible.

However, be prepared for the retail shop to say 'we don't do that'.

Mark

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Re: license

by Kees_B Forum moderator Feb 20, 2011 3:24AM PST

That's one irrelevant part (about Vista crashing, your losing data you didn't backup and you recovering) and two questions. Let me answer those.

1. For a PC and 2 laptops you need 3 licenses. For Windows 7 you can buy the Family Pack that happens to contain exactly 3 licenses. Lucky you! See http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116775 for example.

2. You shouldn't buy a PC that doesn't offer at least a "recover to factory condition" option. However, if you prefer a PC that comes with the OS DVD, you simply buy one that does. That's totally your choice. You can't legally request one if you bought a PC that didn't have it, unless the specifications and the bill clearly say it's included.

Kees

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