Quick story:
When Windows 7 came out and was half price I bought two retail (as in can be transferred) boxed copies, one for the laptop (Vista) and one for the desktop (XP). The laptop got replaced with one that came with an OEM Windows 7 (and now a second time), but I kept that laptop and paid for the "upgrade" to Windows 8, really just to try it out. That laptop is somewhere in a cupboard and hasn't been switched on in a couple of years.
A few months ago I replaced the trusty 10-year old desktop with a bare-bones system (i.e. no OS or disks). I used one of my boxed copies of Windows 7, but not sure which. I then gave into temptation just before the deadline and let it upgrade to Windows 10.
In theory I have one free retail licence, but I don't know which it is. And I don't know whether the same licence was upgraded to Windows 8 and then Windows 10 leaving one Windows 7 free, or whether one was upgraded to Windows 8 and the other Windows 10.
So the question is is there a way I can find out? There's lots of programs promising to reveal the Windows code on the net, but I'm not going to run some random EXE off the internet. If I were to install Windows 7 in a VM and activate it what happens if there's a conflict with the licence I'm currently using? I don't want to risk breaking the system that's running and ending up in the "This copy of windows isn't genuine" hell that I've seen before.
Thanks.
When Windows 7 came out and was half price I bought two retail (as in can be transferred) boxed copies, one for the laptop (Vista) and one for the desktop (XP). The laptop got replaced with one that came with an OEM Windows 7 (and now a second time), but I kept that laptop and paid for the "upgrade" to Windows 8, really just to try it out. That laptop is somewhere in a cupboard and hasn't been switched on in a couple of years.
A few months ago I replaced the trusty 10-year old desktop with a bare-bones system (i.e. no OS or disks). I used one of my boxed copies of Windows 7, but not sure which. I then gave into temptation just before the deadline and let it upgrade to Windows 10.
In theory I have one free retail licence, but I don't know which it is. And I don't know whether the same licence was upgraded to Windows 8 and then Windows 10 leaving one Windows 7 free, or whether one was upgraded to Windows 8 and the other Windows 10.
So the question is is there a way I can find out? There's lots of programs promising to reveal the Windows code on the net, but I'm not going to run some random EXE off the internet. If I were to install Windows 7 in a VM and activate it what happens if there's a conflict with the licence I'm currently using? I don't want to risk breaking the system that's running and ending up in the "This copy of windows isn't genuine" hell that I've seen before.
Thanks.
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