Patch Lady – Windows 7 ESU lessons

Topic

New Reply

Some lessons to be learned from the Windows 7 ESU upgrade…. You have to have a valid Windows 7 pro license.  No pirated keys allowed. If you have an
[See the full post at: Patch Lady – Windows 7 ESU lessons]

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

3 users thanked author for this post.

Pim, Bill C., abbodi86

Reply | Quote

Replies

I have some additions.

1. Windows 7 Ultimate can also use ESU. I assume Susan just forgot to include it here, because in earlier contributions she did mention Ultimate.

2. Buying a license on Ebay can be a good idea if you buy from ebay.de. In Germany OEM licenses can be resold by the original owner if it is no longer used. The courts have ruled there that the OEM condition that it is tied to a particular machine is not valid, as long as it is removed from the original machine. The reasoning is that the license and the computer are 2 separate products that can be legally sold separately. I believe it is based on a ruling from the European Court of Justice, but Germany is the only country I have heard of where the country’s courts have confirmed this.

I have had success in buying Windows 7 licenses from Ebay in Germany, but also failure. The key is to look at the reputation of the seller and how long it has been in business, what other (software) products it sells etc. I have had one case where an installation became illegal after half a year. Apparently the seller was selling the same key several times. I have not had any difficulty using all other Windows 7 licenses that I bought on Ebay.de.

2 users thanked author for this post.

abbodi86, wavy

Reply | Quote

Pim wrote:

In Germany OEM licenses can be resold by the original owner if it is no longer used

Does that mean MS needs to activate that license? Probably not, unless you are in Germany.

cheers, Paul

Reply | Quote

Yes, because it was legally purchased. There is also no condition in the EULA that restricts activation to the country or area where you purchased it. Even if that were the case, it would not be legal inside the EU, so you could activate inside any EU country. And outside the EU one could still use a VPN connected to the EU just for activation. But that is all theory, in practice there is no (legal) restriction.

Reply | Quote

It’s too bad that Microsoft doesn’t let non-business customers purchase an ESU for a home machine.

Reply | Quote

They do, just not for Windows Home.

cheers, Paul

3 users thanked author for this post.

Kaj4strom, BarryHenley, woody

Reply | Quote

Really! How would I apply for one? I’m not sure how I would get an ESU license and I don’t want to get ripped off by a scammer or do something that violates Microsoft’s terms of service.

Reply | Quote

See this thread.
https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/2000015-listing-of-vendors-that-will-sell-windows-7-esu-to-small-businesses/

cheers, Paul

Reply | Quote

And this post.

Amy Babinchak wrote:

As a courtesy to the community, we are facilitating the sale of Windows 7 ESU. To begin the process please fill out this form.

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=CEtIRBCvwEyPI4AgwsgbpPcTYf1jGDxMoOAm3rKwHJVUOTg0M1JXSUJKQjREMElWODdXQ1FVS0tDVy4u

cheers, Paul

1 user thanked author for this post.

kwerboom

Reply | Quote

Got posted down farther, but I do have two questions. Can I fill it out as I’m not technically a “company”? Will just my name and home address be good enough?

Reply | Quote

kwerboom wrote:

Got posted down farther, but I do have two questions. Can I fill it out as I’m not technically a “company”? Will just my name and home address be good enough?

Yes, you can just use your name as the name of the business, and your home address as the business address.  Add “Company” after your name if you’d like.

1 user thanked author for this post.

kwerboom

Reply | Quote

rick41 wrote:

kwerboom wrote:

Got posted down farther, but I do have two questions. Can I fill it out as I’m not technically a “company”? Will just my name and home address be good enough?

Yes, you can just use your name as the name of the business, and your home address as the business address.  Add “Company” after your name if you’d like.

Thanks for the answer. I may just do that at least for one year to keep the one ancient laptop that I have going a little while longer.

Reply | Quote

Your laptop will run happily without additional patches. You just need to be a little more careful about where you visit and what you download.

cheers, Paul

Reply | Quote

You do not have to be a business to purchase ESU from a reseller.  Just use the contact form and you can use your name on the line that says organization.  But, as you may be referring to, Windows 7 must be Pro version or Ultimate.  Note that the second year of ESU is twice as expensive and the third year is four times as expensive as the first, more expensive than most computers.

1 user thanked author for this post.

woody

Reply | Quote

Pim wrote:

I have some additions.

1. Windows 7 Ultimate can also use ESU. I assume Susan just forgot to include it here, because in earlier contributions she did mention Ultimate.

2. Buying a license on Ebay can be a good idea if you buy from ebay.de. In Germany OEM licenses can be resold by the original owner if it is no longer used. The courts have ruled there that the OEM condition that it is tied to a particular machine is not valid, as long as it is removed from the original machine. The reasoning is that the license and the computer are 2 separate products that can be legally sold separately. I believe it is based on a ruling from the European Court of Justice, but Germany is the only country I have heard of where the country’s courts have confirmed this.

I have had success in buying Windows 7 licenses from Ebay in Germany, but also failure. The key is to look at the reputation of the seller and how long it has been in business, what other (software) products it sells etc. I have had one case where an installation became illegal after half a year. Apparently the seller was selling the same key several times. I have not had any difficulty using all other Windows 7 licenses that I bought on Ebay.de.

Guess it’s not that good idea to buy a used license on ebay (some offers are legible, but most not). I’ve had a long article series about that (only in German).

Billig-Lizenzen: Neues zu lizengo, Edeka und Microsoft – Teil 10

It’s not special to eBay – but my sources for those articles bought many eBay offers – 99 % are not valid.

Ex Microsoft Windows (Insider) MVP, Microsoft Answers Community Moderator, Blogger, Book author

https://www.borncity.com/win/

3 users thanked author for this post.

Pim, Microfix, woody

Reply | Quote

BTW: For admins in business environments who are in need to activate more than a couple of Windows 7 clients with ESU keys, there is a solution beside VAMT. I’ve provided an article about that.

Windows 7: ESU Activation in Enterprise Environment – Part 3

Ex Microsoft Windows (Insider) MVP, Microsoft Answers Community Moderator, Blogger, Book author

https://www.borncity.com/win/

2 users thanked author for this post.

abbodi86, woody

Reply | Quote

Finally remember that the offer is still open and doesn’t close.

So that link takes one to a Harbor Computer Services Windows 7 ESU License Request and Payment Form that notes all purchases are final and there are no refunds.  I must have missed (or it was in the paywall version) the Patch Lady’s original reference to whatever this linked offer reflected.  That Harbor initial form page doesn’t list any pricing or other terms, and I’m reluctant to input (and share) anything to just see what deal is available — any freely available link to the full description which was referenced?

Reply | Quote

Try thses two links:

https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/hunting-for-an-elusive-win7-esu-license/

https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/2000015-listing-of-vendors-that-will-sell-windows-7-esu-to-small-businesses/

Reply | Quote

Second page lists the price.  It’s $61 plus the credit card fees that Amy is passing along as she’s already not making money off of this.  And yes apologies, Pro and Ultimate can be extended.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

Reply | Quote

[EP]

kwerboom wrote:

Really! How would I apply for one? I’m not sure how I would get an ESU license and I don’t want to get ripped off by a scammer or do something that violates Microsoft’s terms of service.

follow the links that PKCano mentioned recently, kwerboom.

and you need at least Win7 Professional as the home editions like Starter, Home Basic & Home Premium versions of Win7 do not qualify for ESUs. you will need to upgrade to a higher edition such as either Pro or Ultimate to use ESUs

• This reply was modified 5 years, 1 month ago by EP.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Kaj4strom

Reply | Quote

Strictly anecdotally, I had a smooth experience a while back purchasing and activating a license from trustedtechteam.com, and it looks like they’re still offering Windows 7.

i7-10700k - ASROCK Z590 Pro4 - 1TB 970 EVO Plus M.2 - DDR4 3200 x 32GB - GeForce RTX 3060 Ti FTW - Windows 10 Pro

Reply | Quote

[Average-Jane]

Speaking of Windows 7, this reddit thread has some surprising amount of people chiming in:

https://www.reddit.com/r/windows/comments/f06eiz/you_dont_have_permission_to_shutdown_this/

 

Windows 7 refusing to shutdown for a lot of people suddenly.  Any news on this?

 

(EDIT: posted here instead of a forum because I’m on 10 and don’t need it as support.  Also didn’t see it covered yet.)

• This reply was modified 5 years, 1 month ago by Average-Jane.

4 users thanked author for this post.

woody, Microfix, AmbularD, b

Reply | Quote

(EDIT: posted here instead of a forum because I’m on 10 and don’t need it as support. Also didn’t see it covered yet.)

That’s fine, thanks for the link to the developing issue..nice post!
I’m sure interest will grow in this..Woody! time to get Seven Semper Fi fired up, on second thoughts, perhaps not as you may not be able to shutdown properly.

problem here is, Win7 Home Premium does not have GPEDIT (as per posted fix with mixed results which indicates they are using that version)

If debian is good enough for NASA...

2 users thanked author for this post.

woody, Average-Jane

Reply | Quote

Agreed on all counts.

Reply | Quote

On the Harbor Computer Services’ License Request and Payment form used to purchase an Extended Security Update license for Windows 7, what is the “desired tenant name” and its meaning in the following question 7 on the form?

“7. Please provide the desired tenant name to use (.onmicrosoft.com). If you don’t select a name, or if your name is unavailable, we will pick something as close as possible.”

Reply | Quote

If you don’t already have an account with Microsoft that ends in @onmicrosoft.com, then just leave that field blank, as they say in that statement. As they also state, they’ll then pick something for you and will let you know just what it is once the ESU license has been prepared for you.

Reply | Quote