Member Avatar for minuteman263

My company ordered some laptops last year. They had Windows 7 preinstalled on them. The company here still uses XP, so they had the reseller "downgrade" them from Windows 7 to XP Pro. For some reason, the license stickers for Windows 7 were left on the bottom of the laptops. Now, I am assuming that they were never activated as Windows 7 machines, so those license keys would still be valid. If someone were to copy some of them and go home and load Windows 7 on to their home computers and use those keys, technically, they should work. Now, there is a possibility that my company may move up to Windows 7 in the near future. If they were to use those keys and someone had stolen them, they wouldn't work. Is it possible for MS to track them and harvest the registed user from the pirate machine? Is that possible, or even legal to do? It was foolish for those stickers to be left on them and I do suspect that some of them may have been copied.
Thanks.

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Visible COA stickers are a genuine licensing and operational risk. For ’s situation there are two distinct possibilities: the printed COA key was never used and could temporarily activate elsewhere, or the OEM used a factory activation method so the sticker’s key wasn’t the one in daily use. Microsoft’s activation services monitor activation patterns and can refuse or flag keys that show abnormal use; they generally act on the key (blocking or requiring additional verification) rather than providing end‑user identity details to third parties without legal process.

A useful technical distinction not yet discussed here is that many OEM preinstalls use manufacturer activation tied to firmware/factory images (the OEM activation path) while the COA key on the sticker is typically a fallback for manual reinstalls. That means a copied sticker key can be usable until server‑side anti‑piracy measures detect misuse; the recovery image behavior described by doesn’t prove the printed key is harmless—it’s simply not always the key used by the factory image.

Practical steps to reduce risk and prepare for a later Windows 7 rollout:

  • Inventory every COA (photograph sticker, record serial/asset tags) and keep purchase/reseller paperwork.
  • Ask the reseller in writing how the downgrade was performed and whether factory keys were left exposed.
  • Report suspected leakage to the reseller and to Microsoft Licensing Support so they can advise, detect abnormal activations, and help with validation.
  • For a company‑wide upgrade, prefer volume licensing (MAK/KMS) or proper retail/volume keys and centralized activation to avoid reliance on individual COAs.
    If a COA key later fails activation, phone activation plus proof of purchase is the normal remediation path; legal counsel can advise if theft or unauthorized redistribution occurred.

Echoing earlier points: cataloguing now (rather than “wait and see,” as suggested) makes recovery and verification far easier if problems appear later; collectors of random COAs (as hinted) risk using keys that may be invalidated.

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Member Avatar for caperjack

all things are possible for sure ,its possible that the seller had them all setup and activated and ready to go for your company ,if not its just a wait and see ,and i don't think it possible for Microsoft to track the key ,if it is I've never heard of it

Member Avatar for jwenting

OEM licenses are linked to specific hardware, it's quite possible those keys will not work on any hardware except that specific type of laptop.
And as caperjack says, most likely the machines were delivered to your dealer with W7 installed, and they just took a few hours or days to reload them all with XP instead.

I know that's what our IT department does with new machines, whatever they come with is wiped and replaced with a preconfigured image, the license stickers on the bottom no longer relating to what's actually installed on them (but relating to what used to be installed on delivery from the factory).

It works that way with Vista at least. There's a license sticker on the bottom of my old Vaio, but I never have to enter the number when reloading it from the recovery discs (I would need it if I ever installed Vista on it from a Vista installation disc set), meaning it's pre-activated before delivery to the customer.

So no, those keys will not likely work for other machines for a variety of reasons.

Member Avatar for gvemealurprblem

Actually i have a collection of Windows 7 keys for various versions

Member Avatar for caperjack

Actually i have a collection of Windows 7 keys for various versions

don't save them to log ,because with age they become useless

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