Can I use the Windows 7 discs that came with my SXPS 1645 with another system?

Please excuse me if this has already been asked before; I tried searching for an answer, but was unable to find a similar thread.

My SXPS 1645 came with Windows 7 Home Premium, but I wiped the drive and installed Windows 7 Ultimate off of MSDN. What I'd like to do is use the Home Premium installation for my parents' admittedly ancient Dell Dimension 2400. That system needs to be rescued from the gates of hell anyway, so rather than reinstall Windows XP, I figured it'd be worth seeing how well 7 will run.

Is this possible? I'm at work -- so I don't have access to the DVDs -- and I'm working whether they include a product key.

Thanks for your input!

 

The key that comes with your laptop is an OEM key and is tied to your laptop.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5574922#post5574922

If you use an OEM disc and an OEM key, the installation should proceed normally. Of course, this is definitely not legal, as OEM keys are supposed to be bound to a single machine and are not transferrable.

 

Well that's unfortunate. Thanks for your help guys

 

i think u can do it since u have a valid product key.

 

can and should are 2 different words

 

Did anyone else get two Win7 discs with their 1645s? I got two discs and they both have two different Keys on the envelopes

 

As long as ANY BIOS has the SLIC2.1 in its tables you can use this disk wherever you want and how much ever you want. Just like said its not legal and we don't recommend it. But from a technical point of view, the key on the cd should be oem and the bios should have slic2.1 and windows will be activated auto.

 

Well the system in question is a Dell Dimension 2400, so I sincerely doubt that the BIOS supports SLIC2.1. Regardless the legality issue is enough impetus to not bother trying the install.

Thanks again folks!

 

Correct me if I'm wrong but he said he never used Win 7 Home Premium so he should be good to install it on another Dell system. Win 7 Ultimate can't use his Home Premium key. Or so I am led to believe...

 

His old Dell machine doesn't have slic2.1 in the bios so windows premium will install but will never activate because the key on the CD is a OEM key that looks for matching info in the slic2.1 ,and if found, it will activate and if it didn't find any slic2.1 it will not activate. In this case, the only was to activate it is thru a retail key, which he can get from his MSDN account.

 

What I meant to say was he should be legal to install his Home Premium on a Dell machine that does support slic 2.1. Correct?

 

Well, I can't actually use my MSDN account for a home machine, so for now getting Windows 7 on my parent's system is on ice. This is another one of those pesky "can versus should" situations

 

I totally agree.......