Hey guys, when I bought my laptop it came with Vista, I bought windows 7 professional when it came out, and not long after that I was dual booting with Ubuntu. When ubuntu 11.04 came out I done a clean install as I wanted to give Ubuntu a proper chance as when I was dual booting, every time I couldn't figure something out I would just run back to windows, instead of solving the problem. Anyway I now want to go back to window 7 but don't know where the CD is that came with it. Can I just download windows 7 from somewhere (torrents maybe?) and use my legit serial number (or whatever it's called). And for curiosities sake if I wanted to put my copy of windows 7 or my parents computer am I legally allowed to do that?

Thanks,
Meerkat

I don't think you can get Windows back without the CD or at least a key. But I think you can get Vista back I remember reading somewhere that there are serial numbers on the computer that allow you to get back Vista. I may be wrong though. Why don't you like Ubuntu? If the problems are what annoy you then you can always Google for the answers and when you do get the answers there is such a feeling of satisfaction you get.

~PS Every OS has problems.

Nah, I wouldn't be interested in going back to vista. I still like Ubuntu, but I would rather dual boot Ubuntu and Windows 7. I've been out living in Australia for 6 months at the minute, and all the internet providers seemed to want at least a one year contract, so I got a 3G dongle instead, works on my flatmates windows laptop fine, but the software to run it doesn't run on mine. Of course I'm sure there are ways round it, which aren't made any easier by the fact that I didn't have the internet to solve the problem, but it highlights the fact that sometimes you just want things to work without any effort. I'm not saying that windows is a better operating system because of this, more that it's more convenient to use because every company makes sure their stuff works with windows.

As long as you have a purchased serial number it is legit.

Ah good stuff, thanks.

As for your second question; no you cannot transfer your license to another system, not even if you completley stopped using Windows 7, DBAN'd the hard drive and had no intention of ever reinstalling it on the origional PC. There are exceptions to this based on the type of license you buy but if you have either a Retail or an OEM license then those exceptions do not apply.

Um, yes you can. I just transfered a retail Windows 7 Professional license that I purchased myself from my laptop (which now runs Ubuntu) to my new gaming PC.

No, it depends on the license.
Some Windows licenses are more restrictive than others. In particular, you may not transfer an OEM-licensed copy of Windows to another PC.
http://download.microsoft.com/download/f/4/6/f4662425-098f-414b-8052-9f2de33f3b90/g34899_proc_wlg.pdf

RTFLA! :)