Lol! Windows 7

[bigone5500]

So I got this lenovo computer which had no HDD in it. It still had the COA sticker on the side which stated that it was windows 7 pro lenovo. I put a small 80gb drive in it and grabbed my alienware disc that has windows 7 home premium on it. It installed without a hitch. However, I cannot activate this computer as it originally had 7 pro on it. So I did the anytime upgrade and used the key on the sticker. It took it . Now to activate. So I click on activate online only to find out it failed and needed to use the phone service to do so. I ended up using the smartphone activation choice and lo and behold, activation is successful. I now have a LEGAL copy of windows 7 pro on this computer. What's wierd is this windows 7 pro has all the dell alienware stuff still on it. I'll need to edit the registry to remove the logos and support information from the system properties screen.

 

[RandyDSok]

The COA stickers found on a "Golden OEM" computer isn't able to be used to activate in conventional means... That key is instead more of an accounting tool to verify that the manufacturer had actually purchased a licence for that specific computer. The "Golden OEM" licenced computers instead all use the same key for the period they are made. During the Windows 7 era, most kept a copy of that key in the CMOS and to activate using that key, you had to use that "Golden OEM"'s installation disk... you couldn't use just any other disk. Activation on these systems is automatic and the user is never requited to input anything, the only requirement was that a specific BIOS was installed in the system. If the motherboard was ever changed for another brand, the activation was lost.