So I was in a multimedia store a few days ago...

[protput]

There was this prebuilt sweet looking gaming pc standing there, with the windows key sticker visible.

Is it possible to activate windows with a key like that?

Was really wondering that...

[derien]

I dont think so cause every copy of windows has its own cd key

[Yeren]

i very much doubt it, otherwise you could go to all good pc stores and take pictures of them

[Djinni]

It is possible... but you would need an OEM disc from the same batch.

Basically Microsoft sells a batch of licence keys to a company (eg Dell) as well as a base version of each edition of windows (lets say Win 7 Home Premium) Dell then reproduce their own OEM discs and assign a key to each machine. This way it doesn't matter if Dell mess up and put the wrong sticker on the side of a case (which you can imagine would happen an aweful lot).

[protput]

Thanks Djinni! That's all I was interested in knowing

[vesseblah]

Dunno if it still holds with Win7, but for XP and Vista big OEMs like Dell, HP etc have a version of Windows which will only boot with their motherboard. It checks BIOS for certain codes. CD-key that's supplied with the PC is a dummy number that tells Microsoft it's "Dell volume license for 2011" for example, but does not actually pass for the activation unless you're using Dell's BIOS/motherboard.