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I purchased Vista Home Premium 64bit System Builder OEM DVD last Summer from Newegg, and received the free upgrade to Windows 7 end of October.

I am about to carry out a clean install (using Custom install advanced option) of Windows-7 from the installed Vista. I am concerned however that some application might not run in 64bit Mode and I would benefit the functionality as Virtual XP PC (I had a couple already with Vista). I did not know about this adding feature between HOme Premium and Professional version when I order Windows last summer from Newegg.

My wife is doing her master at UNLV here in the US and I found out that we just missed the $35 student discount upgrade to Windows 7 professional, it is now $65 at http://www.win741.com/ . At Newegg the Windows-7 Home Premium 64BIt and Windows Professional are $105 and $140 respectively - it would have been on y $35 more if I'd thought about this then. The discount rate of $65 is pricey but I am considering it definitely cheaper than Anytime Upgrade.

Do you think it is legit and acceptable to re-sell for cheap on ebay and/or transfer the ownership of my copy of Windows Vista DVD and its related Windows 7 DVD upgrade?

It will allow me to recoup the expense of upgrading to Professional. Of course it assumes, I can upgrade over my Vista install.

I read that once the new product key has been activated by validating with a previously installed Windows Vita copy. Is it just for the 1st install? If I were to re-install Windows-7 from the DVD upgrade install, would I need the previously installed windows present again?

Update: I purchased from Digital River the Windows 7 Professional Upgrade with Student discount and Microsoft's customer support even offered to send me the physical copy "Full" version by mail. So now I do own for my one desktop PC two flavors of Windows 7 Home and Professional, and for the professional I'll have both the Upgrade and Full product. I do hope this extra is transferable somehow, and not be wasted. See this link for details: Can a key-less install be done with Windows 7 Pro from Digital River and enter later the product key for the Full version?

Regarding the Windows Home Premium OEM (64Bit), I only installed and activated the Vista version but won't install nor activate the Windows 7 OEM I received as a free upgrade from Vista last October. I understand that OEM Windows are not transferable to another system.

Is it still possible though to install the Windows 7 OEM and activate it on a different system or is it a loss and a waste?

If this is do-able, then I'd download this in the next day or so. I hope the offer won't be retracted before?!

Thank you in advance for your replies.

Donat

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    You may not transfer the ownership of an OEM licence. It is sold as part of the machine, and is why it is cheaper. If you want to sell the licence, you may only do so as part of the machine, and hence the machine will have to be sold too, at the same time, to the same purchaser :-)
    – user3463
    Commented Jan 11, 2010 at 13:13
  • So even if I were to install on system after decommissioning the original one?!! I thought by calling them you could re-activate for new hardware?
    – Donat
    Commented Jan 11, 2010 at 21:26
  • Since windows 7 need to see an existing Windows OS to activate, Can the Windows 7 OEM not yet activated be installed on a different computer then? The Vista OEM is the OS that has been activated. Thanks
    – Donat
    Commented Jan 11, 2010 at 23:30
  • There may be ethical / legal issues with this. As I mentioned in my answer, it's a copy of Windows with a serial number, after all. But you may not be allowed to resell it unless it's installed on a computer.
    – user3463
    Commented Jan 13, 2010 at 7:27

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I can only answer half of your question. I've guessed the first part in my comment on your post.

Windows 7 Professional, no matter in which guise it comes (e.g. Student, retail, OEM, DSP, etc.), is the same. What's different is the terms of the licence agreement, and usually a philosophical or legal issue as opposed to a technical difference. In other words, your licence key from one edition of Windows 7 Professional should work on another edition of Windows 7 Professional. Whether this is legal from Microsoft's point of view is out of scope. Generally though, Microsoft would prefer you to have any licence than none at all.

I've done several upgrades from Windows Vista to Windows 7, and I have been very impressed with the process. It takes upwards of three hours, which is much less than the time for a fresh install and reinstalling all the apps. It gets my vote.

However, many people may prefer the feel of a clean install, especially because it brings a perceived improvement over Vista.

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