I burned a win7 pro ISO to dvd. I have an unused DELL key for activation. it has worked in the past several times on multiple desktops. activation completed every time. I read that key need not be entered if I UNCHECK the small box below the key field. in this case the OS will auto activate permanently at the first online activity. is this true? a key finder found the same HP OEM key for two desktops that did NOT work. the DELL key does. if I can get away without using a key that would be preferable. please verify if this article is correct or not.
When the check box is unchecked you will have x amount of days to activate. Correct the OS when updating etc will activate if the key is entered or you are using the proper version of an oem windows win 7 for a dell or hp that MAY activate automatically. System info tells you if it activated,just open it & scroll down a bit. Do not use a dell key on an hp or vice versa as the volume license most likely will fail. That's something you can use as well is a volume license to activate multiple pc's if you can get an iso of it
the win7 iso was downloaded from the net and burned it to a cd. the HP key on both cases did NOT work. the unused DELL key provided by the HDD seller DID. the coa was a match to the OS edition. no issues since. the properties screen says "genuine". why this is I do not know. I cloned several HDDs as spares. this leaves the CD as a last resort.