Windows-7 installation questions

[jelson]

This is general information, please do not take it as "gospel"

1. Your pre-installed Windows 7 will likely either be a pre-activated installation that employs BIOS modifications and specialized files if it's a machine from so-called "MS Royalty" manufacturers like Dell, HP, Toshiba, etc - OR - uses an input product key which is given on the sticker on your machine.

Now, my understanding is that all you have to do is reinstall the OS on royalty machines and it's activated during install. BUT don't take my word for it... I haven't thoroughly read and double- and triple-checked this impression like I would if I was going to do such a reinstall.

2. There are only 2 Windows 7 DVDs: 32-bit and 64-bit. There is a file on the DVD that tells the installer if the DVD is a specific edition or to allow installation of any edition. Now, where to get it? As far as I can tell, it's almost impossible to get a Win7 DVD unless the manufacturer offers ones or you buy a retail or OEM one from a store.

I'm not sure exactly why it became so hard to get an OS reinstall disk. 10 years ago when I did tech support for Dell, every system shipped with one. But that soon changed and people were expected to restore their machine to "as-shipped" condition by utilizing the hidden recovery partition.

3. That's an extremely good question. And I strongly suspect the answer is that it might be possible. But rest assured, there are plenty of power-users that have done it. I'm certain good instructions have been posted for both keeping and eliminating the recovery partition, but I hadn't done any research on this myself.

4. I think it depends upon the licensing model. The "roaylty" machines should be automatically activated or something to that effect. "Product Key" activations have so many on-line activations available (I think it's 4) before you have to do telephone actiavtion. Then there's the various corporate activation schemes like Volume Licensing.

I hope this helps more than it confuses or at the very least suggests some lines of research.