Taking the plunge into win 7

[Ian]

Re: Taking the plunge into win 7

The installation CD simply contains the software. It's a backup in case you need to reinstall onto your laptop, say, after a hard drive failure.

The version that is on the CD and which Dell pre-installed will be an OEM version. With OEM Windows the licence is only valid for the hardware it was originally installed onto (your Dell laptop).

If you tried to install the Windows CD on a different computer, you would get stuck at the product licensing and activation stage. The system would probably offer you the option of buying a licence at that stage, but you might be better off buying a proper off-the-shelf version that is not an OEM version.

Ian

[Patrick]

Re: Taking the plunge into win 7

Thanks Ian.

Would it mess things up if I tried it or just refuse to install it?

You say "Cannot be uninstalled and then re-installed." I haven't uninstalled anything and as yet the disk has never been used as the OS on my laptop was factory installed.

I suggest you do a full system backup complete with start up disk.
If you don't have the software for such a thing there is a free application offered from Seagate the HD manufacturer used very often in Dell machines.

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/discwizard

Then if anything goes pear shaped everything can be returned exactly as it was.

Patrick