![Activate Dell Windows 7 Activate Dell Windows 7](https://zdnet2.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/r/2014/10/04/190cb2e7-4b87-11e4-b6a0-d4ae52e95e57/resize/370xauto/875d7db4b497d5bb135de1baeb582dd4/windows7pirate05w7loadercomplete.png)
![Activate Dell Windows 7 Activate Dell Windows 7](https://philipyip.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/laptop-coa.png)
Dec 30, 2011 so what was the coa sticker on the laptop for? Win7, vista, or xp. If you extracted a key for anything other than 7 then no, 7 won't activate.
So what was the coa sticker on the laptop for? Win7, vista, or xp. If you extracted a key for anything other than 7 then no, 7 won't activate. Not with that key, anyway. I recently had to do the hand-me-down thing with my wife's Dell, with the old Dell going to my daughter. My daughter's machine is now insisting that the Win7 installation is invalid. All machines have their original Dell service tags. How can I retrieve my the Windows 7 activation code that was used on my.
![Activate Dell Windows 7 Without Product Key Activate Dell Windows 7 Without Product Key](https://philipyip.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/activate.png?w=920)
Please excuse the length, I've web-searched this, including on this forum, but did not find anything on point, and want to give full detail in case someone can help. Last week I bought a new Dell laptop from Amazon. It specifically noted 'NEW' on the page, and 'Windows 7', and this was sold by Amazon, not some other seller thru Amazon. It arrived in a factory-sealed Dell box. I made a set of 'system restore' discs with the Dell utility, and put aside a complete set of drivers, then started trying to reinstall Windows. This was according to the Ars guide from June 2012, '.
The article links to generic disk images offered by Microsoft's contractor Digital River. The article says the following about them. These downloads do not include a license or a product key to install Windows - you'll still need a valid 'full install' or OEM license and product key. Install media. Downloaded from Digital River. Will happily accept OEM license keys as long as you're using 'full install' media rather than 'upgrade' media.
You may have to use Microsoft's phone-based activation process rather than the more convenient Internet activation The first problem was, there was no 'OEM license key printed on the computer'. There is a Dell service tag number, and an 'Express service' number, but none of those long groups-of-characters strings.