^ Damn fine and pertinent question, kona.  

I ask because I see it on Craigslist all the time. People selling computers without a OS or recovery disc or selling computers after loading the OS using a copied Windows XP/Vista/7 disc.

Nope, no OS disc came with it. No biggie though, I have my own W7 Pro disc 64 bit. I did a variation on the upgrade. Booted up, put the install disc for W7 in the tray, opened it up, clicked on setup.exe and boom, four hours later after I did a backup restore from my external HDD, all folders skins and other nice stuff. Did a reinstall of WB, DX, CFX, which BTW is working now, and my anti-virus apps. Trying out PS now to see if its still working. If not out it goes and I stick with PSP. Pays to have your own install disc. I did learn however that you can only put the OS on two machines. I always thought the limit was five, had to get a new product key. But, knock wood, all is good in the land of insane folks.......

Like starkers and a few others who should remain nameless but..................

GOTCHA!

Thats odd...each of my Technet keys allows you to install the OS to 10 different machines, and reinstall unlimited times.

I always thought it was one copy per machine. that's what the ELUA reads.

I dunno. The one I tried to install it on was for a friend. He bought a larger drive for his laptop. Had a helluva time with it too. Anyway, when I went to activate it online it kept refusing it. So I called support and spent the next hour and change getting it straightened out. What a pain that was.

Back OT....mine brand new used one is coming along nicely. Got almost all my apps installed. I think one or two more will do it. Don't want to overload it.

BTW......Does anyone have the installer package for Bins beta that you might want to share? Mine is stuck on the other HDD.

It's still available for download...here

Guess that depends on which EULA you get. The one I have from Technet allows me to use each of my 10 keys of each version on 10 different machines.

Also, my Win 7 Enterprise edition key can be used on an unlimited amount of machines.

Technet is the only way to go...you get access to every thing Microsoft has, before it's released. All this for the price of a retail copy of an Ultimate edition of Win 7.

Thank you CG1 for the link. Now on to folders...lol.

So, in theory, you can use this copy to sell machines loaded with that copy of 7 until your blue in the face?

I don't buy proprietary brand desktop PC's [always build my own] and I don't own a laptop, though the missus does.  We each have a netbook with a recovery partition, but those have no ROM drive anyhow.  I suppose, though, if I really wanted to do away with the recovery partition, I could always mount an OS install on a bootable USB stick.. or plug in an external DVD ROM.

Hopefully all will work as it should from now on...  here's wishing you all the best with it.

'Ere, who are you calling insane?  I'll have you know that I'm as sane as the next person.  Ask anyone at the asylum, they'll tell ya.

Um, no!!  The Technet license allows you to install the software in machines IN your immediate possession.  To sell PC's with the software installed would be considered illegal/unauthorised distribution.

That would be against the EULA and would be a quick way to get arrested for piracy. It would take a bigger fool than I to go down that road. 

Hey starkers..............

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!!!!!! Haaaaaaaaaaaa ha ha ha ha!

Got Bins and Rainmeter 2.1 installed and running.

Here's a question for Xiandi. How do I change the text color on Stealth Drone WB? The grey on black is hard to see.

I have yet to see anyone arrested for selling a PC with pirated software. Happens all the time on Craigslist. So either it does not make news or more people get away with it then is worth to prosecute.

The process with TechNet is that you are specifically a MS Customer who is directly linked to however many licences/keys you click 'get' on.

The reason is to facilitate developers/etc to run variations of the MS OS on variations of hardware to debug/develop software, etc.

If you were stupid enough as to give a key/whatever to a third party....well...MS knows where you live....and will happily have your balls....

This specific computer I'm typing on has 5 licenced OS's running on it....

Find that hard to digest. Why then does MS allow pirating to go on with 3rd party computer sales?

Good stuff... hopefully the reformat has resolved all your isseues and it's all plain sailing from here on.

kona, t's not that MS allows it, rather that resources to prosecute incidences of software piracy are kept quite busy .  However, those who pirate MS software have joined the queue to prosecution.  It may not happen today, tomorrow, next week or even next month, but MS has vowed to bring pirates of its software before the courts.

I heard a while back that FBI agents are here in Australia to enable the prosecution of digital media pirates here, and that several people have appeared before the courts with various piracy related charges.  I don't agree with foreign/US law enforcement agencies operating on our soil, because it surely wouldn't happen if the boot was on the other foot, but apparently some of those arrested were charged with offenses relating to MS software.  So if you want to take the chance, be it on your own head when that dreaded knock at the door arrives.

I wasn't talking about myself. I have a legit version of 7 that came with this notebook and a COA key. I was talking about all the selling on sites like CL.