Windows 7 Reinstall windows 7, reactivation?

[doldrumsboy]

I recently upgraded windows 7 ultimate x64 from my vista home premium x64, however, the new upgraded win 7 includes too much junk and slows down my laptop a lot. So I would like to do a clean install.

My question is: I have already activated my upgraded win 7, so if I reinstall my win 7, would I activate the new win 7 by the same activation code?

P.S. I upgraded my BIOS (From my laptop producer website) after upgrade, does it matter?

Thanks!

 

[reghakr]

No, it will be automatically active, but you should perform a "clean" install to get rid of the junk.
Be aware, you'll need to re-install all your 3rd party applications.

 

[tblount]

If you do a clean instally you have to go through the activation process again. As long as you are no the original machine it will work. If you want to use your key to install to another computer, or new motherboard, or sometimes other hardware changes, you get a message saying "Product Key Already In Use" you'll have to contact Microsoft... the automated online process used to fix this with Vista doesn't work on 7.

 

[doldrumsboy]

Thanks a lot for all the replies!!!

I am an European user, so please do not mind my poor English

According to your replies, I gonna do the following: (I will re-install win7 on the same laptop without any hardware changes)

1. Recovery my OEM vista, which is the same OEM Vista I did the win 7 upgrade before.

2. In the Vista, run the setup from my "windows 7 ultimate upgrade version" DVD and Choose the "Custom install" in win 7 upgrade menu.

3. When it is done, delete the "windows.old" folder.

4. According to "reghakr" and "tblount"'s replies, the new windows 7 would be automatically activated.

5. Reinstall all the drivers and 3rd party applications.

Am I right about the above procedures for a clean install?

PS. I upgraded my BIOS though the updater provided by my laptop producer (Toshiba) after the first win7 installation, does it matter for the automatic re-activation after this re-installation?


Thx!

 

[tblount]

I would make sure I had all my software and personal files backed up then

change bios to boot to dvd driver first

when the install disk loads, do a custom / clean install (check partitions and delete them all)

(during the reboot you'll need to change your boot priority back to your C: drive in your bios)

after everything is setup and activated I would go through the steps in the link below and see if any problems were found

if everything looks ok and i could get online and setup a few basic programs like email and restore my backed up files, and back up my registry or create a restore point, go to user account control and slide the bar down so I wouldn't be bothered with giving permission to everything I wanted to install or modify

i would do the speed tweaks in the link below. a few at a time.. reboot and check out everything

after that I would to install my software applications

then do a registry clean with cclean if I didn't have a commercial program

defrag, back up the registry again

then go out to play

What am I leaving out guys?

 

[reghakr]

If you do a clean instally you have to go through the activation process again. As long as you are no the original machine it will work. If you want to use your key to install to another computer, or new motherboard, or sometimes other hardware changes, you get a message saying "Product Key Already In Use" you'll have to contact Microsoft... the automated online process used to fix this with Vista doesn't work on 7.

I pulled a GeFore 8500GT and a Creative X-Fi 7.1 channel sound card out of my other PC (POS) and put them in my cheap $399.00 E-Machine.

I started it up thinking it was going to ask me to activate, but it =never did.

From another thread on our forum, someone changed the motherboard and they did have to call Microsoft for a new key.