Doesn't appear to have been very well locked to the system, does it? It might well be locked to the system now. I might be a bit out of touch with how installs are done these days but a few years back all the manufacturers installed the OS on a HDD via an image which was then shipped with a key which is stuck to the case of the PC or laptop. It was always up to the user to activate the software. From Microsoft's point of view, my activation of the OEM is the first time it has been used as far as they are concerned and they assume that it has been installed under an OEM licence. It would be difficult for them to assess if this was not the case in my example.

So given that I have now activated the licence, I would assume that it is locked to my mobo and if I tried to change my mobo or install on another system, I would be unable to unlock the software. Why do you think that Win 7 needs matching media to the activation key? I can't see how it would reduce piracy or increase security and would assume that this is largely redundant in the age of downloads anyway.

I have Dell Latitude E6410 that I got from my university 5 years ago. I have previously reinstalled the windows 7 on it using DVDs. Now, I have upgraded to Windows 10 and after getting the anniversary update I am having problems with wi-fi and camera. Free Lemmings Game For Windows Xp. I want to downgrade to Win 7 but it is not possible.

I really doubt anyone would be supplying Dell OEM discs online since the licencing is tied to the actual disc. Dell will sell you new copies of discs though if you already purchased a machine from them, from recall they are $55 or thereabouts. Is one of the cheaper ways to get an OS and if you know how to do so you can change the keys on any Dell computers you are working on after the fact if you purchase the same OS as originally installed on the machine so it matches the key already supplied on the system later on.

It was most certainly needed in the past (OSes prior to 7) With XP you needed the CD that related to the version & type of install, ie XP Pro Retail vs XP Pro OEM, etc. There were ways around this by editing the ISO but basically you needed the right version & the right type of install to match the Product Key. With Vista it didn't matter. You could use one CD to install any version and either OEM or Retail. It all came down to the Product Key. With Windows 7 you can install both OEM & Retail from the same disc but you must have the right version of Windows, ie, Home Premium or whatever unless you delete or edit the ei.cfg file to change the disc so that it asks you what flavour you want to install. If you do this then you can create a copy that works like Vista did & can install any version for both retail & OEM.

For both Vista & Win 7 the only problem with using a mismatched OEM/Retail DVD & Product Key is that you may have to activate by phone instead of over the net. I can assure you that it does work. Really, I can assure that it doesn't. I had an OEM version of Win 7 HP that came preinstalled on my xmas laptop.

I changed out the HDD for a SSD and installed Win 7 Pro on the SSD. At no stage do you state that one is an OEM and the other a full RETAIL copy. An OEM disk can have Home or Pro on it.

A Retail key & disk a different to an OEM one. So it won't work. As stated by Wyrm Retail and OEM are different, Home and Pro OEM can be installed from the one disk, but it has to be an OEM disk, not a RETAIL disk. Steve the (original) name pirate.

Arya Ek Prem Pratigya Song Free Download. As stated by Wyrm Retail and OEM are different, Home and Pro OEM can be installed from the one disk, but it has to be an OEM disk, not a RETAIL disk. You have it mixed up. Different windows 7 disks are versioned by feature level, not by OEM or retail. The windows 7 home premium DVD will work with both OEM and retail keys. The only difference is how the activation server deals with the keys. Silverfast Ai Studio 8 Serial here. However, you can't install windows 7 pro from a windows 7 home premium DVD (without rebuilding the ISO) Windows XP was the one where you had to be extremely careful that the key matched the version you were installing.

So just to be clear, you downloaded a Digital River ISO (from the links above) and used this disk to install Windows 7 HP to your desktop. You then activated it with the OEM key that came with your laptop? Yep that's what I did. And you din't do any reg edits or anything strange to make this happen? No did nothing to change the install at all. Frankly, as I understand it, that shouldn't work.

Anyone else got anything to say? Why shouldn't it work? OEM is not retail but the server is only looking to see if the product has been activated before and if it has then matching the system info with what is on record. I would have been surprised if it didn't work as that would not allow anyone with an OEM system to reinstall their OS due to the fact that there is no OEM download site. Really, I can assure that it doesn't. Well it worked for me, how do you explain that?