Licensing and Windows 7 Migration
I am attempting to plan our migration from Windows XP Pro to Windows 7 Pro and have some licencing issues, as follows: 1. At this stage only our Admin systems will be upgraded to Windows 7. As we "decommission" XP Pro on these systems, should we "deactivate" that product, thereby reducing the number of licenced XP Pro systems that we have, then "activate" Windows 7 Pro for each system ? 2. All of our systems have a licenced version of MS Office 2007. Again, for those systems migrating from Windows XP Pro to Windows 7 Pro, should the Office licences be "deactivated" then after the OS migration and the Office product installed, it then be "activated". Thanks in anticipation. Ian Morris
Reply by Aaron Hawke from Xari Group Pty Ltd on Friday, 18 November, 2011 - 09:40
Hi Ian There is no real way to “deactivate” Windows XP or Office 2007 licenses. We would recommend wiping the existing software from the machines and doing a fresh installation of Windows 7, as there are known problems with upgrades that are caused by the initial installation. In order to do this, you would need to boot off the Windows CD and then when asked where you want to install to you just click the ‘format’ button to wipe the machine. From there, the installation will just continue automatically and you can install Office 2007 from scratch again once this is complete. It is also advised to take a backup of the system before you wipe the machines. The backup process would depend upon your current setup and whether you have a server, but we can provide more guidance on this if required. I hope this helps! If you require any further assistance we would be happy to help, so please don’t hesitate to contact us. Kind Regards Kate Simmonds Xari Group 0404 661 661 ksimmonds@xarigroup.com.au