PCA Forums

Ok... I am a bit frustrated.
A while back I purchased the family 3 pack of windows 7 for some of my computers. My laptop, TV-pc, and netbook.

Now fast forward to today, my TV-pc crapped out and it was old so I ordered new hardware and ditched the old computer. Only thing I kept was the HDD. Well guess what? MS will not let you install to a 4th computer with 3 license even when one of the original 3 computers is no longer in service.

I called MS and this is the case.

Anyone have a different experience. I have 3 license for MSWin7 and only allowed to use 2 of them now.

I let it authenticate online and wait for it to fail. Once it does, I choose the phone option and confirm it's being installed on just one PC.
It then reads back a code for you to enter. I've done that various times with the same install key and never had an issue.

Might be worth a try.

^ What Los said. Always works for me.

All they're trying to do is prevent people from using the same license on several PCs. MS's policy is they will let you install the same retail license on a new PC as long as it's been a while since you last installed it.

They also allow two installs on one license (assuming a desktop and a laptop that you won't be using at the same time).

Whoever you talked to at MS support gave you incorrect info. Maybe they misunderstood you or maybe they were just being a deuche.

I never talk to a live person. I do the tedious automated phone activation and it always works for me. Try it again.

You can try ANY of the three licenses BTW and they should work as long as it's been a while since you last activated them.

I had to call them once when I reinstalled xp on a new motherboard. Just tell a live tech that you had to replace the board. They will give you a new activation code.

like others have said and always worked -also with xp I call up when I get a fail to approve and say I was beta testing and they give me a reactivation code

Ok... This is a family license for 3 computers. When calling I said it was installed on two computers. (Still have one more to go). This did not work. Tried again today and said zero...That worked. VERY DUMB ... I am typing on a computer with this license. I should have been able to say 2, but no ... had to lie to the big computer in the sky and tell it 0

Oh well, it worked.

You mean you told them zero meaning it was never installed?

Yup. Always lie. However I have NEVER talked to an actual human at Microsoft. You always have the option to perform a "Phone Activation" which is automated. Windows gives you a LONG number you read off to the voicemail robot and then the robot reads back a LONG number you type into the PC and it activates Windows.

That is what I did FP.... Read the long number off to a computer and said the software was never installed and then it gave me the number to activate. Go figure.

Yup. They don't REALLY care if you've done multiple installs. UNOFFICIALLY you can usually do 3 installs in a row on different PCs (using the phone method the 2nd & 3rd time) before you get told you need to speak to a human.

They're just trying to discourage abuse. If you're willing to take the time to go through the tedious process of a phone activation and you haven't done too many activations on that key recently, it's okay.

If I have to deal with a human, I just say the mobo died and had to be replaced. NEVER admit to a whole new PC because TECHNICALLY that violates the licensing.

I have a 3 pack license also, installed on 3 different PCs. If I had to re-install from scratch, I would use the phone method to obtain another key? Jeez. Might be easier to have a backup.

After I did a fresh install and applied all the updates on that date, I keep the initial Acronis backup files. I do have other Acronis backup files that are replaced, but I always keep the initial backup files.

A re-install of the OS on the same PC would be validated via internet activation without a problem, as long as there are no major changes of the hardware.

But yes, a full Acronis image of the boot drive is a heck of a lot easier. My main workstation's boot drive gets imaged once a week to an external USB drive.

While tedious, the phone method certainly is worth it if you need to perform an extra install. It also works when you use a non-Dell CD to install Win7 on a Dell box, or when the OEM CD install fails, and you enter the Windows key on the hologram sticker. Done that many times.