On 12/20/2013 12:50 PM, Oren wrote:
TDD,

Have you ever used an OEM Win7 HP product key on a Retail Win7 HP
clean install?

I get different answers and different approaches. Some say no, some
say yes. it will work. Some show how to edit a *.cfg file in an ISO
image, so Windows sees OEM or Retail - so the key can be entered for
activation. Some say skip key entry, and use the phone activation
process.

Friend's laptop has OEM Win7 Home Premium (HP) full of bloat ware.
Want to do a clean install from a retail (Win7 HP) disk ....use the
OEM key. I've extracted the key (BBBBB-BBBBB-BBBBB-BBBBB-BBBBB)
(sample)

Just want to use that key on a new, clean install from a retail disk
or a Win7 HP SP1 slipstream ISO image (authentic from MS)

The slipstream image saves a gozillion downloads before SP1 gets
installed and then another zillion updates to get current.

Hopefully, I'm not too confusing

...or a *good* NG for Windows 7? MS has stopped supporting Usenet
NG's


I haven't used OEM Win7 for any installs, upgrades or reinstalls yet
even though I have OEM and pirate hacked copies. I have used the
recovery features on used laptops that I've obtained and if done right,
the built in recovery works very well. I did this with a used HP G62
loaded with Win7 I got from a pawn shop. I also did a recovery from the
built in partition on a Toshiba 17" laptop I also got from the pawnshop.
It has Vista and both machines are working normally. Your friends laptop
will have a recovery partition unless the hard drive was reformatted
which would probably erase it. I would recommend getting on the web and
looking for directions for doing a recovery which may reset the computer
back to the way it came from the factory which may or may not wipe out
what data and software has been installed by the owner. If you can, back
up pictures and documents before doing the recovery operation. ^_^

TDD