nagging question?

[wozelbeak]

while looking through our local p.c repair shop the other day, i heard an old man asking the techy how is p.c was coming along? the techy told him that he had changed the hdd in it and was just reinstalling windows (or words to that effect). the old boy said do i have to pay for the new windows software? the techy replied that he had used the old system off his old hdd. is that possible? could he take the old operating system from his old hdd and put it back on his new hdd?
i got the feeling that the old boy had not got a windows disk, and was worried that an illegal operation was occuring.
i thought that you could not do it, but can anyone clarify this.
woz

 

[Osak]

He might have installed a copy of windows from a cd he had there but registered it as the "old mans" copy for the CD key that is usually suck to the side of the case.

 

[wozelbeak]

yes but he would have had to charge him fir it wouldn't he?
and is that legal?
woz

 

[Osak]

Naa he wouldnt have to charge for it (he could though) and yes it legal, when you buy software your really only buying the CD key.

 

[catalyst1]

Yeah, it's perfectly legal. As long as you have the rights to a copy of Windows, you can install it wherever you want as long as you uninstall it from its previous location first.