Who owns your PC? (Win7)

thanks for the advice i think i will upgrade within the next couple of weeks


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you wont regrett it mate, its so much better.

I was talking to a girl about computers yesterday and she said maybe I should consider buying windows 7 home premium OEM software. Is it ok buying OEM software off eBay or is it too risky. Would many computer retailers sell it too you if you bought a piece of hardware?


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Most hardware etailers will sell it with a CPU, motherboard or graphics card or something, though they often don't count things like hard drives, USB sticks or peripherals such as keyboards, mice or monitors. Then again, some etailers will simply sell the license by itself, though they're not meant to, and Microsoft had a crack down on that a couple of year back.

The only restriction with OEM Windows is that the license shouldn't be moved between PCs. In the case of custom built PCs, a PC is defined as a motherboard. When the PC (or motherboard) is retired, then the Windows license dies with it and you'd need a new license. Replacements due to a parts failure (such as the motherboard) are deemed OK, so long as an entire PC upgrade isn't made at the same time. Retail Windows doesn't carry that restriction (though of course it can still only be installed on 1 PC at any one time, unless you buy the family pack).

Buying Windows licenses off of Ebay would be asking for trouble. I read yesterday that people are even selling Photoshop on Amazon UK, and it all looks fine... but only because the modified installation program patches a file to stop Photoshop from phoning home to Adobe. The DVD, box, instructions, shrinkwrapping - they're all done at home and look cosha. They're making a mint from it too - £250 as opposed to the £800 it would cost for the same license legally. It's not worth it.

hey guys i have updated to windows 7 and first impressions are good i formatted my old xp hard drive and installed win. now i tried to reinstall all my drivers unaware that they are probably for xp 32 bit os and it made win7 all shitty and not work so i had to roll back to the fresh installation and go from there. so the question is is there a good driver scanner out there to help me get all the up-to-date 64 bit drivers. i know when you do a google search there are tonnes but i am not that stupid as most pf them aren't free or they are just plain and simple trojans and viruses. so any good ones out there you could reccommend thanks


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Drivers should be available from your hardware manufacturer, if they are not posted on their sites, they don't exist.

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torana_05
so the question is is there a good driver scanner out there to help me get all the up-to-date 64 bit drivers.

I'm sure there are, but if you know the hardware you have, it's always best to get the latest drivers from the manufacturer of the part, so for an Nvidia graphics card, you'd go to the Nvidia website.

I'll have a look for your motherboard drivers tonight.

thanks guys i have managed to most of the drivers. all my games and programs work with the exception of rfactor. i dunno it might have had system files stored on c: when i formatted it. ill just reinstall it but everything else looks fine. thanks again but that driver scanner if you can find it would be still handy just to make sure i have got current ones. thanks


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There's a few links here, though I can't verify any of them. I've always found it best to look for the drivers myself rather than relying on a piece of software which might not have been updated in years.

To be honest, if you got the latest driver for your graphics card you'll be fine. The latest sound chip drivers for the sound on your motherboard are available on the Realtek site. I won't link to them directly, but go to High Definition Audio Codecs (Software) > accept the terms > and choose Vista, Windows7 Driver(32bits) Driver only (Executable file) or Vista, Windows7 Driver(64bits) Driver only (Executable file) depending on whether you went for 32-bit or 64-bit Windows. The Realtek links are sometimes quite slow.

Thanks gav fro all your help I'll shout you a virtual carton of beer


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