Are Windows OEMs bad to buy?
 

Hi all,

My sister got a used old toshiba satellite laptop with no operating system. I put linux mint 18 on it for her and she agreed. After a week, she wanted to do stuff that requires a windows operating system.

I went to tosiba's website and selected the model of the laptop. According to this laptop, the drivers only work for windows 7 and 8.1.

I went to amazon and purchased a windows 7 OEM for $59.00. When it arrived, I install it, activated it and everything was handy dandy.

Today, the sh!T hit fan. She called me and say her windows is acting weird. Her chrome browser will open and close by itself. She can't login to her yahoo account because it say it's a wrong password. The internet connection which is wifi will not connect at times. I asked her what she did, what website she went to, did you download anything, and etc to get an honest answer.

Then I was thinking about the wndows 7 OEM disc I purchased on amazon. Can this be a bootleg disc? I don't know much about OEMs. I paid $59.00 for this. it can't be a bootleg or is it?

When I first activated the product key, the MS servers replied back it was a genuine key.

I included two images of the packaging and the disc and I blur some details. Perhaps, you can tell me if you can, if this is a genuine OEM or a bootleg. Thanks

Hello and welcome to the forum :)

While I'm not sure why your sister has experienced the issues you've mentioned, the main issue is that you purchased the wrong version four sister's laptop. It's not legal to purchase and use OEM versions of Windows 7 (and most likely other versions) in this manner. You would need to purchase a "full retail" version like the one shown here. ;)

Regards...

If you go here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/soft...nload/windows7

you can download W7 directly from MS's servers so you know it's clean. In the past you could get .iso's from digital river but that seems to have changed

Hi...

But the product key would still be from the OEM copy.

Regards...

And that's fine..

He could also use the key that's on the computer

IF and only IF the image at https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/soft...nload/windows7 accepts OEM keys.

Which I doubt.

I'll try it this evening

I had to enter the product key to verify it before I can download a window's 7 iso, but it failed. I guess the product key it wants is a windows 7 retail key and not a OEM key. Here is the error I got:

Which is obviously the OEM version of windows 7 I purchased.

I have no choice but to reinstall the windows 7 OEM back on her laptop. The windows 7 OEM cost me $59.00.

I am grateful for the replies and the link. Thanks

PS: Maybe I can convince her to put linux back on the laptop. :-)

I doubt there was anything wrong with the disk, she probably caught some virii ... inevitable with MS.

I must admit, this is my first thought.

Me too.

In fact, I was asking her questions like where did you go, what did you download and install and etc. But, you know how it is, if you're the computer geek and the go to person in the family and someone messes up something in the windows OS, they are evasive to give us the real answer.

Let her know with Windows she has not the same freedom to browse the net as it is with Linux.

nuff said. :)

Go here and join the forum if wanting to check if she infected Windows.

http://www.computerhope.com/forum/

Follow their sticky instructions

http://www.computerhope.com/forum/in...c,46313.0.html

Nah, wipe her computer clean every time it gets infected and do a fresh install. One of you will get tired of this and this hopefully will lead to a better solution.