Fresh Windows 7 Re-Installs

[magicniner]

When I moved away from Windows XP I went with Windows 7, I bought a boxed retail copy of Windows 7 Ultimate direct from Microsoft so that I could move it to new machines as I upgraded my hardware.

I started out upgrading from Windows XP on an NC600 HP laptop, then moving to an NC6000, then an NC6400 and at the moment I'm running a 6010p with 8gb ram, nothing sparkling but adequate and cost effective for my requirements.
With a couple of hard drive replacements plus testing CAD/CAM with 32bit & 64bit on a couple of builds it seems that Microsoft decided the Retail Boxed Software they sold me is no longer legitimate.

Last time I needed to install on a new upgraded Hybrid-SSD drive on the 6910p I had to spend the best part of half a day with Microsoft Support sending them photos of my software packaging and even the receipt and box for my new HDD before they finally issued me a new serial number.

Now, a year on and my CAD/CAM became a little confused, uninstall and clean install suggests it's something in the registry or elsewhere that I can't find causing the problem and the solution is, you guessed it, A Clean Install of Windows 7.
No prizes for guessing also that Microsoft won't activate the install and tells me I'm a victim of software piracy, I'm getting a real idea of who the Pirates are in this scenario!

I suspect that it's all to do with Microsoft aggressively forcing Win 7 and Win 8 users onto Win 10 but It's now getting up my nose the the extent that I decided to investigate the possibility of eliminating the activation process.

I'm not going to publish a full guide or the tools to do it but with a little searching it's easy to find a Windows Activation Technology removal tool (V2.2.6 ), to apply after SP1 and the subsequent Windows Update Software Update, with a list of updates to avoid it's possible to get security patched up to date.

Needless to say there's lots of muppets out there who think it's a wheeze to repackage malware with Windows Activation Technology removal tools, so even with a good version of the good one, after running the removal tool you need to install and run Malwarebytes and a good Anti-Virus before.