Can I use my HP OEM Vista key when reinstalling with a Vista DVD?

I think I screwed up my Recovery DVDs, it was confusing I ended up burning 4 somehow instead of three.

Anyways I wanna install Win 7, and don't feel like messing with partitions or doing anything wierd with dualbooting. My Vista is slow and my girl's 5 year old Celeron M in XP runs circles around me.

I have the Key HP stuck on the back of my Lappie, all the text rubbed off except for the key, but I assume it is an OEM copy.

Regardless, will that key work if I were to reinstall Vista in the future, with a Anytime Upgrade DVD? Or do I need to call M$ and fight with them for a key?

 

I believe there have been problems with OEM keys on retail discs...

The easiest thing may be to contact HP and buy a recovery disc of them.

If you have a valid Vista instal however, you can instal the upgrade on the upgrade license.

 

Since you have an HP system you can use the ABR tool to backup your activation status and use a Vista Anywhere DVD to reinstall in case Win7 dont work out for ya. What you do is backup your activation key onto a thumb drive and after you reinstall you can restore the activation key and do away with any M$ activations. There is a sticky thread in the HP forum that explains it:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=120228

Cheers,

/Reby ~ Iron Geek

 

Ok cool, thanks.
I'm installing Win 7 and need this as a backup if I don't like it.
Plus I'm in China so it's kinda hard to get anything shipped here.

 

I have both the 32 and 64 bit Anytime Upgrade discs. I've used them many times to install Vista using the key on the COA sticker of the machine. It activated over the Internet every time.

 

the keys always work, just not always with the online activation. you have to activate over the phone.

and yes, you could use it on another system if your countries laws allow it. and yes, those keys are independent of the pre-installed activation which you can backup with the ABR tool.