language disk or key bound?

Is the language of the OS bound to the OEM key supplied with a notebook or with the install medium?

What will come out of the following:
- German OEM OS on a notebook
- Reformat and reinstall but with an english OEM disk using the key of the notebook, as the key of the disk is already in use...this seems not be a violation of the EULA...Both are the absolutely the same version of the OS (W7HP 64bit, only the language is different.)

 

It isn't bound to anything. Keys are universal bit- and language-wise.

If your laptop is any bigger brand, you can use ABR tool to do OEM Activation on new install. Dell qualifies as a bigger brand, in case you are speaking about the laptop in your sig

Or you can install manually, as you suggested. Again, if computer is a bigger OEM and pre-activated the actual key in the sticker is unused. Do the ABR trick anyways for future use

The Activation and Backup Recovery tool you can find in the HP forum stickies: Clean install Vista. Latest version works with Win7 too.

 

So does this mean that a installation from an english disk with a german OEM key will result an english OS?

 

Yep. I do those often between English, Swedish and Finnish versions depending on customer's needs. Not always are original discs available, so I'll just use generic OEM ones.