Windows 7 Product Key

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Capetonian

Windows 7 Product Key

#1 Post by Capetonian » Sun Dec 30, 2018 7:42 pm

I have an old Dell laptop which I want to give to a friend. The OS is Windows 7 build 7601, and a message keeps popping up saying that 'This copy of Windows is not genuine.'

When I start it opens a box saying ''activate now' and then 'buy a new product key online' but that link doesn't work. By Googling I can find various 'hacks' and links to fake versions but I want to buy a genuine version from Microsoft.

I suspect that this is no longer possible. Does anyone know if that is correct, and if so, is it possible to upgrade to W10?

Thanks

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Re: Windows 7 Product Key

#2 Post by ian16th » Sun Dec 30, 2018 8:12 pm

Have you looked here?
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Re: Windows 7 Product Key

#3 Post by ian16th » Sun Dec 30, 2018 8:17 pm

You should also run Belaec Advisor it gives the Product Key of the system it is running on.
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Re: Windows 7 Product Key

#4 Post by Capetonian » Sun Dec 30, 2018 10:29 pm

Thanks Ian, I'll check it out tomorrow, too tired now for high tech.

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Re: Windows 7 Product Key

#5 Post by OFSO » Mon Dec 31, 2018 7:05 am

Suggestion: Linux Mint !

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Re: Windows 7 Product Key

#6 Post by Capetonian » Sun Jan 06, 2019 6:24 pm

I have had partial success with the Dell.

More by luck than judgement, I found a W7 Home disk and was able to run a clean install of that product, which is working, except for one fairly important item, which is that it won't connect to internet, either by wifi or Ethernet. Apparently there are no drivers installed.

Obviously I can't download a driver from the internet because it won't connect to the internet (Dear Liza ....). I have tried to download a driver onto a USB stick using another computer, but when I plug that USB stick into the Dell nothing happens.

I could probably muddle through it but I have more important things to do and wondering if anyone knows an easy fix.

Thanks.


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Re: Windows 7 Product Key

#7 Post by ian16th » Sun Jan 06, 2019 8:01 pm

Does the SD card slot operate?
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Re: Windows 7 Product Key

#8 Post by OFSO » Sun Jan 06, 2019 8:37 pm

When I bought a Canon Printer last year my mini PC had no DVD player to run the installation disc. I plugged a full size USB drive into my smart phone via an adaptor cable, searched for the latest driver using Smart Page, downloaded it via the phone (using Relish no-limit G4 homefi) choosing the plugged-in USB drive as destination. Then plugged the USB drive into the PC, open, run, install....at that point it needed a lot of button pushing on the printer in lieu of actually reading the instructions (horrors !) but finally the PC and printer indulged in electronic intercourse and all was well.

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Re: Windows 7 Product Key

#9 Post by Boac » Sun Jan 06, 2019 9:00 pm

"if anyone knows an easy fix." - buy a key?

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Re: Windows 7 Product Key

#10 Post by Capetonian » Sun Jan 06, 2019 9:43 pm

Boac : How exactly would you do that?

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Re: Windows 7 Product Key

#11 Post by Boac » Sun Jan 06, 2019 9:49 pm


Capetonian

Re: Windows 7 Product Key

#12 Post by Capetonian » Sun Jan 06, 2019 9:55 pm

Thank you, but that link doesn't produce anything that the laptop accepted, it is one of the several that I tried. Nor did the link that MS directed me to.

W7 is no longer supported and there doesn't seem to be a legitimate way to obtain a genuine key that works, and I did say that in my initial posting.

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Re: Windows 7 Product Key

#13 Post by ian16th » Sun Jan 06, 2019 9:58 pm

ian16th wrote:
Sun Dec 30, 2018 8:17 pm
You should also run Belaec Advisor it gives the Product Key of the system it is running on.
Have you tried this yet?
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Re: Windows 7 Product Key

#14 Post by Capetonian » Sun Jan 06, 2019 10:05 pm

It didn't give me a result because the licence had expired. I think that the problem was that the version of W7 that was on the machine was an office version which was licensed for multiple installations on a network. Once the machine was no longer running on the network the licence was no longer valid. Does that sound plausible?

Anyway I seem to have now solved that problem by installing a version of Home Premium.

Thanks anyway ......... now I have to see about the drivers, but that's for another day. It isn't really important, it's a very heavy laptop which is surplus to requirement, and which I wanted to give to someone who can't afford to buy one.

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Re: Windows 7 Product Key

#15 Post by OFSO » Mon Jan 07, 2019 2:39 pm

Drivers always available, often from third parties.

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Re: Windows 7 Product Key

#16 Post by G-CPTN » Mon Jan 07, 2019 3:08 pm

What about 'winding back' to the previous version of the OS? I appreciate that that has 'issues' with the validity message, but it did have the drivers . . .

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Windows 7 'Support' ending next year

#17 Post by Boac » Thu Mar 21, 2019 4:10 pm

M$ have reminded users that security patches will cease in January 2020.

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Re: Windows 7 Product Key

#18 Post by ribrash » Thu Mar 21, 2019 8:41 pm

XP rules.

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Re: Windows 7 Product Key

#19 Post by OFSO » Fri Mar 22, 2019 6:07 am

XP rules here also......helped by daily doses of AVG and Malwarebytes.

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Re: Windows 7 Product Key

#20 Post by Boac » Fri Mar 22, 2019 8:28 am

Relevance? Windows 2000 still works well. I have an install disk if needed - and 98.

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