Transferring ownership of machine with OS loaded but no license

A

arcaneinsomniac

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Jul 22, 2011
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I am referring to Windows 7 in particular though this question applies to any other OS software as well.

When installing an OS from disk we are given the option to skip entering the license key. Installation continues, and the user generally is given 30 days to activate. I believe if the user fails to do so within that time, the OS into "lockdown" mode.

This is basically like a 30 day trial. Suppose I have a friend who normally uses Linux on his PC and is unsure about buying a windows license with a new machine. Is it illegal for me to sell him a computer, explicitly specified as a computer without an OS, whose hard disk has a 30 day trial of Windows installed on it? He can obtain a windows license by buying an OEM copy. This is obviously a contrived example, what I'm wondering about is whether it's legitimate to do this as an option. The only difference between this and a computer with no OS is that in this case the user will have a computer with a working OS with the correct drivers loaded, and has 30 days to decide if the software is satisfactory.

The idea is that since software has the capability of being flexible (indeed Windows does give you an entire month to pony up a license) I'm wondering how much of that flexibility I as an OEM can take advantage of.
 
Well, not entirely designed for builders to sell systems in this manner, there isn't any reason why you can't do this. It quite frankly is in Microsofts favor since it exposes more people to the OS. The whole purpose of the 30 days is to try it out and that is all your customer is doing. You are just making it easy for the customer by installing it for them as part of the cost of the system.
 
Windows trials are effectively unlicensed versions of software, which is generally NOT legal to sell with hardware. The tricky part is the definition of sell, if you are selling the hardware that happens to have a trial installed is different than charging extra for that software, which means you are profiting from it. The later is difficult to prove, but its the part that can come to bite you. Trials are intended for potential users to install themselves to see if they like it, not for OEM's to install without a contract. A big issue is after 30 days what if the user likes the software and is now pissed their computer is locked down, they will come to YOU to figure out what to do and might be upset that they have to pay even more for a license now. The alternative is they call MS and ask whats wrong with their computer, and they explain they bought this from you and its now unusable... see where this will lead?
 
The install without a key feature and 30-day activation period aren't really intended as a "trial". If you look on Microsoft's website, they don't offer trial downloads of Windows, you must purchase it. They don't offer you the chance to try their software before you buy it.

Let me play devil's advocate for a moment. When dealing with software the actual program code (in this case Windows), is the intellectual property, not the license key. If you sell a computer with an unlicensed copy of Microsoft's intellectual property on it, I'm sure that would meet the definition of piracy for most people. Relying on the end user to obtain a legal license to that software does not absolve you of responsibility.\

That being said, I would have no qualms about doing this for a friend, but I would absolutely not do it if I were selling it as a retail PC.
 
You all bring up thoughtful points.

I'll definitely be careful with this when selling machines.

Thanks! this forum is an excellent place to bounce ideas around, I'm glad to be here :)


On a very tangentially related topic, Windows does seem to be getting more and more stable. I did a fresh install last week, installed all the updates, and things are rock solid. I'm getting no browser plugin crashes. I can fill up all 8 GB of my ram by opening an insane amount of web pages and the computer doesn't skip a beat.

good software is hard to come by...
 
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