Fresh Windows 7 Re-Installs

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! :fatigue:

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 :biggrin:), 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.

A couple of month ago i purchased a new Sunnto sports trainer(watch) i have been running XP for years but the Suunto software was not compatable with XP so hadto find another option, thought about getting a newer Mac but as i had a Dell 960 with 4Gig of ram i went for Windows 7 Proffesional from a seller on ebay, the packaging looked ok in the listing and it appeared genuine when it arrived, got it all up and running but after a day or two i got the message that Microsoft thinks you have invalid software. It gave a phone number to ring to validate and i did so and it all appears fine.
was 12 squids.
Mike

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Originally Posted by mekanik

i went for Windows 7 Proffesional from a seller on ebay, the packaging looked ok

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Yeah, that happens a lot, but I bought genuine, direct from Microsoft, and instead of adequate support I got the runaround.
I absolutely refuse to contribute further to their revenue stream in order to use something I've already bought a retail license for and so have found an alternate method to get the functionality which was sold to me.

I now just buy keys of eBay, then download the relevant iso from Microsoft.

I have however pretty much given up on windows 7 though, as I've grown to like 10. I probably still have a 7 Pro license sticker kicking around somewhere if you want.

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Originally Posted by m_c

I probably still have a 7 Pro license sticker kicking around somewhere if you want.

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Thanks for the kind offer but as above I've got it sorted, I'm now looking at a Virtual Box build to host Win 7 Virtual Machines, Virtual Box has the capability to allow direct access to the graphics adapter to the Virtual Machines which should facilitate fully featured CAD/CAM on Virtual Machines with all the associated advantages of Virtualisation :D