Activating a Windows 7 OEM license-key on the same laptop a second time possible?

Hello!

So here's the situation:
A bit less than a month ago I bought a Sony Vaio VPC-EB4S1E laptop as a gift for someone else, upon booting up the system I saw that it was so chock-full of bloatware and crap (so much that the person that I gave it to wouldn't be able to use it well) that I wiped the Windows partition and instead installed a clean version of Windows 7 from a retail disc that I had, installed the drivers from Sony's website with no problems and everything has been smooth sailing ever since.

I didn't enter a license key when I installed Windows 7 and the 30-day countdown until you have to activate the OS is coming up in a week and I was wondering the following:

1. The system was already factory-activated when I got it, will activating it a second time on the exact same hardware and OS version with the license-key it was installed with from the factory work fine or will it throw a fuss about the number of times you can activate it or something else? I ask this because..
2. if it does indeed throw a fuss and doesn't work, will the system go bonkers and throw up warnings about not being genuine and be annoying without the ability to remove those warnings unless getting a retail key? The person who owns the laptop isn't very computer-literate and I'd prefer not to get freaked-out phonecalls about the issue until I can fix it, if possible.
3. Is my only recourse to buy a retail disc with a new key or is there some hackery with the registry files that can be done to get back the old activation without having to re-activate it over the internet (if that doesn't work).


I hope that I made some sense with the above ramblings and I'm grateful for any reply.

Cheers,
minim

 

You can reactivate an OEM key several times, worst case you will have to activate it over the phone and tell Microsoft the system was reformatted.

You mentioned that you used a retail copy of Windows 7 though which will not work with an OEM key.

Unfortunately you'll either need to reinstall Windows using an OEM disc, or purchase a retail key.

 

If your computer came with OEM Windows 7 disc it will auto activate when installing Windows 7. Activating an OEM computer is not the same as a retail copy of Windows 7. IOW there are no limits because the activation key is sold and bundled to the hardware seller i.e. Dell, Lenovo, Toshiba.

If you have done a backup of your original Windows 7 OS you can restore it pre activated.

 

you can reformat and activate indefinitely

 

1. Factory activation is different thing compared to the sticker on the bottom. Since you wiped the original installation, also the required certificate was wiped. Using only same install key would not work. Therefore you are forced to go back to regular OEM activation and enther the key in the bottom sticker...
2. ...and that sticker activation is regular OEM activation. Usually it activates over internet, sometimes phone activation might be needed.
3. There is no reason why activation would not work. Why wouldn't it and why is the internet so scary place?

Regular OEM and Retail discs are same now. The license code itself makes the difference and changes how windows activation behaves.

Plain OEM Windows doesn't automatically activate, you need manufacturer specific install disc than contains the activation components for that exact computer type.

Plain OEM activates over internet with install key just like Retail copy, it's just limited to activate only on that same computer in the future. There's two types of OEM activation.

This is true as long as hardware it's installed to doesn't change Sometimes it might need phone activation but still, it should always activate.

 

Thanks for the replies.

I actually used a retail OEM disc for the installation, if that makes sense. I bought it with a custom desktop that I ordered a year ago, since it was half the price of a retail disc with no real disadvantages except for no 32-bit disc and limited official support.

The laptop didn't come with any discs of any kind. The recovery partition is still intact on the computer, and I created four DVD discs as some sort of restore discs using the provided OEM software on the laptop before I formated, to use in case everything went doo doo.

The issue isn't that I cannot go back to the original installation where the OS is already pre-activated, the problem is that I want to activate my current fresh installation with the original license key that was activated from the start, if that is possible. If not I'll just buy a new retail key since retaining the current installation is more important than saving 200$ on a new key. I'll make up the lost money with fewer support visits to my dear mother, and a whole lot more peace of mind.

I see, and there is no way to copy the factory certificate to the new installation if I were to go back to the old installation?


Thanks,
minim

 

If you have the old installation active, you can simply use ABR to backup the OEM activation, and restore it to the same machine once you have reinstalled Windows.

 

You can restore the original factory installation from the DVD discs, then use ABR tool to backup the offline activation. Then re-install with regular disc you have and already did and use the ABR tool restore offline activation.

Or you can flip the computer around and enter the key displayed in the sticker.

 

^ This.

I've done clean installs using the OEM CD key with a retail disc (or disc copied to USB thumb drive) lots of times. As said above, the worst thing that will happen is that you need to call MS to activate. It's completely automated, and the process doesn't take more than 5-10 minutes.

 

Seems I must have misunderstood something earlier and managed to confuse myself, I will try to activate with the key on the back of the laptop.

Will let you know tomorrow how it worked out, travelling back and forth to my mother's house takes a few hours so I cannot try it right now.


Thanks for the help,
minim

 

Everything worked out just fine, thanks for the help and sorry for being a bit daft.

 

That's what I was referring to.

My Dell laptops that come with Windows 7 disc are automatically activated after installation. Also I was also referring to if the OP made a backup copy of the original installation from the mfg image on the hidden partition.