Install Retail W7 on two PC's?

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Soldato
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I bought a retail copy of W7 for about £97 back in dec and I've just recently installed it onto two computers. Now one of the computers is saying its not a genuine version of windows in the bottom right.

What do I do now?
 

lcg

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A retail copy is only one licence. Although the licence is transferable, you may only have it installed on one computer at a time. You should therefore remove Windows 7 from one of the computers, and buy another copy of Windows 7.
 
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i dont think thats ness true... with apple osx software it allows for use with a laptop and a desktop ie the thought being they wont be used at the same time, but nothing to check that they are... id read a bit deeper you might be suprised... or you might just waste your time :p
 
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If you have having trouble with your license and it got blocked accidently you can always phone up Microsoft, explain to them the situation and hopefully they will unblock it. - They won't let you have the key on two different machines though.
 
Soldato
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Because I paid close to £100 for it.

£90 for something that will probably outlast most of the hardware in your computer?

People have a very strange attitude to paying for Operating Systems. They will quite happily blow thousands on a gaming rig, with usually most money going on graphics cards which can be superceded in months. Spend £90 on an OS that gets updated almost weekly for 10 years and lets you actually use all that hardware and you start to complain?

Get some perspective!
 
Soldato
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With applications it's not uncommon to get a license for both a desktop and laptop install, but I'm not aware of any OS that has this approach.

You can pick up W7 from the MM for around £65 these days.
 
Soldato
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i dont think thats ness true... with apple osx software it allows for use with a laptop and a desktop ie the thought being they wont be used at the same time, but nothing to check that they are... id read a bit deeper you might be suprised... or you might just waste your time :p

Well the equivalent to the question here is OSX itself and it is quite clear from the Snow Leopard license that you are only licensed to install that on a single system, see here with the appropriate point being part 2 of the OSX Snow Leopard license. To install it on more than one system requires additional copies to be purchased or a family pack license.

Anyway .... back to the OP ...

There's enough information around online why on earth would you think that you could install Windows 7 on more than one machine at a time? Stop being cheap and buy another license.
 
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Soldato
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I bought a retail copy of W7 for about £97 back in dec and I've just recently installed it onto two computers. Now one of the computers is saying its not a genuine version of windows in the bottom right.

What do I do now?

At the moment neither installation of Windows is legal.
It is simply one license one machine, the way it always has been for Windows.
By breaking this license agreement, at the moment you are ilegally running two copies of Windows under a single licence.
You are no more legal than somebody who decided to be a thief and steal their copy of Windows.

By removing one installation you will then be license legal on the other machine.
From the sounds of it you've bought a retail version, so that machine will always remain license legal no matter how many hardware upgrades you make.

Either be license legal - go and buy another copy of Windows for your second machine.
Or pirate everything.
There is no middle ground with theft/piracy.
If you want to be legal then buy the licenses you're supposed to buy.
Or steal everything - only your moral stance can make that decision for you.
 

AJK

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Hypothetical comment follows...

There is no middle ground with theft/piracy.
If you want to be legal then buy the licenses you're supposed to buy.
Or steal everything - only your moral stance can make that decision for you.

Surely there is a practical, if not legal, "middle ground", which (knowingly or otherwise) is exactly where the OP is standing on this issue. Purchasing 1 license is better than none, but not "as good" (or "as legal") as buying 2.

What about a small business environment who have 50 Windows licenses, but for various reasons find themselves running 54 Windows PCs for about two weeks, while moving some users from one office to another. Legal? No. But also far from "steal everything", which is the only alternative according to you.

What about John, who buys every piece of software on his PC, but can't afford a license for Photoshop. He doesn't actually use Photoshop for anything, but every now and again he is sent a file in PSD format and needs to convert it into something his preferred editor (say Paint.NET) can use, so he installs a pirated copy. Legal? No. But again, it's a little different from "steal everything".

This is all hypothetical of course, since using illegal software IS wrong and none of the above situations are valid reasons for doing so. I just wanted to comment that even though your moral code only allows for the extremes of "legal" and "steal everything", this is only one point of view.

Legally you are correct - it's all or nothing.
 
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