Core77

[mpdesigner]

If I install a legitimate copy of Windows 7 onto my PC and activate it, then use the same disk and key on another PC and activate it, will it deactivate my previous installation? Or will it not let me activate the 2nd one until I deactivate the previous one?

I heard you are allowed to load it on a desktop and a laptop but I am not sure.

Can anyone shed some light on this before I attempt to buy and upgrade to WIndows 7 Ultimate? Wonering if I need to buy 2 copies or would one suffice for 2 or more computers (one being adesktop and a laptop).

My desktop rig is 64-bit and my laptop is 32-bit. THe upgrade comes with both DVDs bu only 1 activation key.

Thanks!

[NURB]

Software Nazi's at Microsoft will never allow that. You need 2 copies, or 2 licenses. It's that way with almost every piece of software. If you try to activate the 2nd copy it will say you can't until you deactivate the previous one.

Get out the checkbook.

[Cyberdemon]

Yeah. Not legal.

Doable. But not legal.

[mpdesigner]

Hi Cybermon,

What do you mean by "Doable?"
Can you please clarify?
Do I simply just load it and type in the key on th second computer?
Will it affect my other computer that already has it loaded?

In other words do I have to do anything out of the ordinary process?

Thanks for your insights.

[symmet]

You could always buy the Family Pack that comes with 3 licenses. It's definitely cheaper than buying 2 copies.

http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Windows ... 014&sr=8-1

[NURB]

Hey Wow! Hat's off Microsoft! You finally did something nice for a change.

[one-word-plastics]

The scheme that you described is not that absurd. Solidworks allows you two installations - work and home/laptop using one license. I really like that. They know the work habits of their users and makes it convenient & cheap. Hats off to Solidworks...

[one-word-plastics]

I used a pretty slick (and well published) method for buy heavily discounted copies of MS products. You can only do this once, unless you can snag multiple email addresses.

Microsoft ran a huge discount for students with a .edu email address. They only check the extension of your email address to pre-qualify you for the promotion. Most alumni associations provide email addresses for their alumni with ".alumni.edu" extensions. I snagged one of those a couple years ago and got MS Office 2008 for $50 and MS Windows 7 for $30. No questions asked. I'm sure somewhere in the fine print I abused some caveat, but it I feel a lot better after the transaction that having hit a torrent site for the goods...

[BruceSmith]

Hi mpdesigner,
When you purchase the single computer key, you can not use it in two computers. You have to purchase the another activation key for the another computer. I heard that the Windows7 has a 64bit and 32bit both operating system, so purchase as per your need and budget. One option is you can not update your one of the Windows7 operating system, then there will be no problem to use the same key in both computer, but this is piracy. I don't have idea regarding family pack that is 3 pack.

[Travisimo]

So overall, how do you like Windows 7 anyway - Is it worth the trouble to upgrade?

[Cyberdemon]

So overall, how do you like Windows 7 anyway - Is it worth the trouble to upgrade?

IMO the upgrade (Even from XP) was rather straightforward and infinately simpler than installing XP from scratch. I actually installed 7 on a seperate HD so I could keep my XP installation intact (incase I have any issues that I need XP for) and it was unbelievably easy. Other than installing the drivers for my sound card, everything worked flawlessly right out of the box.

A few hours of reinstalling software, but it also has a transfer tool that works fairly well at copying over your old data.

I'm pretty happy with it so far. It's been very stable, even in a few instances where it should have crashed - like trying to read off a corrupted flash disk. Wouldn't read, so instead of the usual "EXPLORER.EXE IS NOT RESPONDING" I just clicked the X and the window closed. Done deal.

Performance has been very good too. Boots up much faster than my XP machine and I've been using the "readyboost" feature (uses a 4 gb flash drive as a RAMdisk) and that seems to have made loading up and shutting down even faster.

[NURB]

Very cool. I was at a SW user group meeting yesterday and some guys were on 7 already and said SW was working great so far. It's officially supported in SP1.0, FYI.