Windows 7 key only

O

ooogz

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My friend told me I can download windows 7 from Microsoft. And buy a legit key for mch cheaper some where else? Any one ever do this?
 
Could be second-hand keys.

Whomever is doing that possibly treads a fine line between legit and not legit. According to MSs terms not all keys may be resold....
 
hugo69er said:
My friend told me I can download windows 7 from Microsoft. And buy a legit key for mch cheaper some where else? Any one ever do this?
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This sounds sketchy, as far as I am aware you cannot do this, legally of course. How would anybody buying these keys know that they are legit if they are not coming from MS themselves?
 
Windows 7 Can be ligitimately downloaded. The keys I'm not sure about but there's always Daz's Windows Loader for the rest.
 
DrJohnZoidberg said:
This sounds sketchy, as far as I am aware you cannot do this, legally of course.
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Microsoft's licensing agreement for the retail packs states that you can transfer the software license from machine to machine. So for packages like the Office H&S triple pack or a boxed copy of Windows 7, you can re-sell the software and the key, provided it wasn't used for an upgrade license and that you uninstall it on your machine.

OEM keys are a grey area. If, for example, you build a new PC with the board you already have and buy a copy of Windows 8, but the old OEM key is stuck onto a chassis, you're technically not allowed to sell that key off. However, the activation center will let you do it and carry on a usual if you use it for an install on another machine. So long as there aren't two copies that Microsoft can pick up, they don't seem to care.
 
NAG - Wesley said:
Microsoft's licensing agreement for the retail packs states that you can transfer the software license from machine to machine. So for packages like the Office H&S triple pack or a boxed copy of Windows 7, you can re-sell the software and the key, provided it wasn't used for an upgrade license and that you uninstall it on your machine.

OEM keys are a grey area. If, for example, you build a new PC with the board you already have and buy a copy of Windows 8, but the old OEM key is stuck onto a chassis, you're technically not allowed to sell that key off. However, the activation center will let you do it and carry on a usual if you use it for an install on another machine. So long as there aren't two copies that Microsoft can pick up, they don't seem to care.
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Remember that MS licensing agreements have to obey local law. In some places EULA restrictions are non-binding and so possibly, resale of such keys in such jurisdictions is legal. Since the internet is international, people may have heard of that.

Also who knows, maybe Windows keys are sold for cheap in places like China where piracy is high and MS is happy to have customers at a fraction of their 1st world customer price. A discounted sale is better than no sale at all. Such keys would be not OK to resell outside these jurisdictions according to MS, but local laws may actually say that once you buy something you can do whatever you wish with it.

This was actually tested in court recently in the US. An Indian reseller of textbooks was selling Indian edition textbooks to Americans. These textbooks are identical but significantly cheaper than American textbooks. The publisher challenged him in court and the Indian Ebay seller won.
 
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Space_Chief said:
Remember that MS licensing agreements have to obey local law. In some places EULA restrictions are non-binding and so possibly, resale of such keys in such jurisdictions is legal. Since the internet is international, people may have heard of that.
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That would be correct, but this is South Africa :-P I doubt anyone would be willing to take up Microsoft's EULA to a court and ask "Is this legal?" Most people won't go through that hassle.

I did ask some Microsoft reps at a Office 2010 launch about the licensing issue and I talked to a regional manager and a volume license saleslady. As far as I know, what I posted up for the retail keys is correct and the OEM is still a grey area because Microsoft changed the EULA in Windows 8 to say that they're cool with OEM license transfers.

Space_Chief said:
Also who knows, maybe Windows keys are sold for cheap in places like China where piracy is high and MS is happy to have customers at a fraction of their 1st world customer price.
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It is sold dirt-cheap in China. I think the asking price now is somewhere around R180 for Windows 7 Profesisonal? The vanilla version is just R90. If they don't sell it at a tenth of its price it will be pirated massively anyway because few OSes handle Chinese characters as well as Windows does. Ubuntu Kylin may change all of that though.
 
if you download and install windows without a key, after sometime (About 30 days) it will say that your product is not activated/licensed etc, if you try to activate after a while it will say that your license is not valid and give you the option to buy online. This will be directly from Microsoft. As to whether it is cheaper that a retail store, not to sure.

Also, be careful where you download from, if it is from a Torrent site, stay away. Could be embedded with virus' or malware...
 
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