Windows & student version

[George27]

I have a question about the Win7 pro disc that is sold through microsoft to anyone with an edu email address.Is this an OEM equvalent or retail upgrade disc. If I install this will I be able to swap out the motherboard and hardrives as I could with the version of xp that I bought through the univeristy while I was attending?

Thanks in advance.

[yronnen]

Why should you care about the disc itself? I bought the license using my edu email, and it supposed to be upgrade. However, I've used a retail DVD (not upgrade) to install and activate without a problem. The license is not OEM.

Having said that, you should know that Microsoft changed the license and activation procedures in Vista and 7. Basically, you can activate the system on two different computers (not at the same time...), but after that it will not activate and you will need to call Microsoft. Microsoft may or may not allow you to activate the system for the 3rd time (on different hardware).

[George27]

Why should you care about the disc itself?

I don't know anyone these days that still even have disc the way OSes are imaged on to a hidden partition nor have I ever heard anyone that I know going through the trouble upgrading a MS OS they just purchase a new box. University of Wisc. in their student center the school sold you a physical copy Windows and Office for 35 bucks each that was manufactured for the school by MS, school logo etc..

But anyway thanks I used changed the HDD and motherboard processor 4 times in the last 8 years and never had any hassles reactivating and the school licensing deal back then was totally different. From my understanding if I remember there were something like four different deals that MS gave to schools with XP. University of Wisc. had one of the least restrictive.

[03GrandAmGT]

My understanding from our university was that you could use it on 2 computers only. So I purchased the Professional version of W7 through BSU and have had no problems activating on Laptop and Desktop.

jd

[George27]

You can go into an Office Depot and buy a student version of Win7 premium. I believe it is like student version of Office that you can simultaneously have activated on two computers. The idea is to put one on a desktop and another on your laptop. This is maybe what also your school's licensing deal entitles you to. With XP there were some school licenses versions that were similar to VLKs and the tihing was that you didn't really own the license intially but after a protracted period. A place such as academicsuperstoredotcom ever offers Ultimate.