Buy a legitimate Windows 7 product key

C

Colonel_Panic

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 5, 2009
Messages
328
I need another license for Windows 7 for my HTPC. Microsoft only seems to want my money if I'm buying Windows 8. Does anyone know where I can get a proper Windows 7 license, maybe from a hidden page on Microsoft's site? Since I have the install media already, I'm only really looking for the license.
 
I don't remember them selling medialess keys until Win8, except as part of a subscription of some kind.

This was always the cheapest way to get a license. I just haven't used the DVD since 7.
 
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Newegg still has Windows 7 OEM disc.

I wonder if the OEM system builders disc are still going to be available for awhile...
 
Bullitt said:
I'm sorta in the same boat. With the cheap Win8 keys to be had, I read about downgrade rights:

http://www.microsoft.com/oem/en/licensing/sblicensing/pages/downgrade_rights.aspx

Seems like you can purchase an Win8 OEM key, and have downgrade rights (per MS) to Win7 Pro or another alternative.
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Sorry to dig up this old thread but has anyone actually done this?

I have read the downgrade rights page of ms and looked into the procedure. It seems to me like you need to have a w7 product key before you can downgrade to w7. Or do I completely misunderstand things?

Can I just buy a system builder (OEM) windows 8.1 Pro and install windows 7 pro from other media with the product key of the windows 8.1?
 
rsq said:
Sorry to dig up this old thread but has anyone actually done this?

I have read the downgrade rights page of ms and looked into the procedure. It seems to me like you need to have a w7 product key before you can downgrade to w7. Or do I completely misunderstand things?

Can I just buy a system builder (OEM) windows 8.1 Pro and install windows 7 pro from other media with the product key of the windows 8.1?
Click to expand...

You can downgrade the system builder edition of Windows 8.1 pro down to Windows 7 Pro, but you need to already have another legal copy of windows 7 (to install from) and a legal Windows 7 professional key. This key can be OEM, Retail or VL, doesn't matter. You just need a key to get the activation process kicked off.

You will install Windows 7 Pro with the other media that you have and then you will use the other Windows 7 key to activate the copy. When it doesn't go through, you will be required to call the Microsoft Activation Center, explain to then that you are downgrading Windows 8 Pro systembuilder. They will ask you some questions and then after they are satisfied, they will reset the activation count for the Windows 7 key that you reused so that you may finally activate the downgraded version of Windows 7.
 
jojo69 said:
motherfuckers are going to get me to learn linux yet
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You'll be back before you know it and you'll be happy to pay for a license. I use osx, linux, and windows everyday. I'll give MS props were props are due, windows is brain dead simple to use compared to linux.

If everything goes well in linux it works fine, otherwise be prepared to make animal sacrifices to linux gods to get it working.
 
Crystal Gaol said:
You can downgrade the system builder edition of Windows 8.1 pro down to Windows 7 Pro, but you need to already have another legal copy of windows 7 (to install from) and a legal Windows 7 professional key. This key can be OEM, Retail or VL, doesn't matter. You just need a key to get the activation process kicked off.
Click to expand...

So without a key to start with, you're stuck? Ugh. I did recently search for a way to buy a Win7 key, and found very little, save that buying the new install media with key was about the only way to get a key. I was hoping to find a phone number to call, as I remembered an almost painless process when Win XP (or whatever the OS was) failed to recognize my tweaked machine.

Ultimately, I did buy new OS media. I was trying to figure a way to resurrect my father's Win7, whose legitimacy had suddenly expired. The machine had come to him through an institution, and the decal on the side of the machine with the Windows key did *not* match the version of windows that was installed. So just having any old key wasn't much good.
 
karlmonster said:
The machine had come to him through an institution, and the decal on the side of the machine with the Windows key did *not* match the version of windows that was installed. So just having any old key wasn't much good.
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was it an hp? I have had that problem with hp pc's all the time.
 
It's too late now of course, but I've actually found success torrenting an OEM Windows disc with no crack that matched the version of the key on the label (Vista Home SP1 I think).

You can also often obtain for free or for a nominal fee the "restore discs" from the actual OEM. I've gotten OS install discs from Dell for just a couple of bucks before.
 
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