Flex Posted December 2, 2013 Share Posted December 2, 2013 I'm looking at buying a desktop for the office and there's a chap on ebay (business) that is selling a pretty good spec machine, it's a refurb. It's got several pieces of software on there and he says the license for them has been paid by the company that originally had the machine, surely if I buy the comp for my business it wont be a valid license for me? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grundy Posted December 2, 2013 Share Posted December 2, 2013 Depends if there account specific i.e. Do you have to log into that software to use? Surprised they didn't clear of the HDD... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flex Posted December 2, 2013 Author Share Posted December 2, 2013 Well in particular I'm thinking about MS products so no login needed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grundy Posted December 2, 2013 Share Posted December 2, 2013 It will be a case of, if you ever wipe your hard drive / format it. You wont have a copy of MS with it unless they give you the license key. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fodder Posted December 2, 2013 Share Posted December 2, 2013 (edited) It depends on how the business pays for its licensing. I'd be however very concerned over how he got the hardware as businesses would wipe the machines and destroy data before selling them on (if they even do sell on). EDIT: wouldn't you destroy your data? And I don't mean just deleting "my documents" Edited December 2, 2013 by Fodder Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rabbitstew Posted December 2, 2013 Share Posted December 2, 2013 It depends on how the business pays for its licensing. I'd be however very concerned over how he got the hardware as businesses would wipe the machines and destroy data before selling them on (if they even do sell on). EDIT: wouldn't you destroy your data? And I don't mean just deleting "my documents" +1, some companies ive worked for in the past have allowed employees to buy their old pc`s etc.. but in each case the company has securely wiped the hard drives before handing them over. Its then up to the employee to buy a windows license etc... My current company is required by our clients to physically shred any hard drives we no longer use. So we securely wipe them, then a local company chucks them in an industrial shredder and issues us with an ISO doc saying what serial numbers were shredded etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flex Posted December 2, 2013 Author Share Posted December 2, 2013 Pretty much what I thought, I agree with everything said above. Cheers boyz. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fodder Posted December 2, 2013 Share Posted December 2, 2013 (edited) Pretty much what I thought, I agree with everything said above. Cheers boyz. I did actually hear if a h/w guy who sold old equipment as used but got found out as he never wiped them and on the custom login screen it had a help/security number. he was found out as one of his "customers" called it asking how to logon the machine he had just bought. What a couple of buffoons. I know the above doesn't help you but I'd steer well clear Edited December 2, 2013 by Fodder Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Husky Posted December 2, 2013 Share Posted December 2, 2013 You should be wiping any machine bought 2nd hand, irrelevant of what you're told. You simply don't know what's on there that could endanger the information you put on it. Factory restore it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grundy Posted December 2, 2013 Share Posted December 2, 2013 Also, don't plug it in to any network points until tested, or wiped. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rabbitstew Posted December 2, 2013 Share Posted December 2, 2013 Or if the previous owner was a hot chick, run a photo recovery program on it first.... 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flex Posted December 2, 2013 Author Share Posted December 2, 2013 Who's at fault though, surely not the buyer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flex Posted December 2, 2013 Author Share Posted December 2, 2013 Or if the previous owner was a hot chick, run a photo recovery program on it first.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grundy Posted December 2, 2013 Share Posted December 2, 2013 Not you, the seller. it's like buying a car, if it's got an aftermarket exhaust, it comes with the car, its now yours. However like some places you don't keep the life time warranty. Such as you won't get the license key, unless they give it to you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fodder Posted December 2, 2013 Share Posted December 2, 2013 Not you, the seller. it's like buying a car, if it's got an aftermarket exhaust, it comes with the car, its now yours. However like some places you don't keep the life time warranty. Such as you won't get the license key, unless they give it to you. Not true. You don't know the license agreement the business has. I wouldn't touch as it sounds really dodgy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grundy Posted December 2, 2013 Share Posted December 2, 2013 (edited) But the product is licensed and paid for (so to speak) So it's the company that is liable for looking after their stock. At least that's how I see it. Either way, if it's a good spec and price, I'd just replace with my own HDD Edited December 2, 2013 by grundy225 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fodder Posted December 2, 2013 Share Posted December 2, 2013 (edited) But the product is licensed and paid for (so to speak) So it's the company that is liable for looking after their stock. At least that's how I see it. Either way, if it's a good spec and price, I'd just replace with my own HDD No it's not. Heard of enterprise licensing? To be honest as I said I'd be more concerned over how the hardware was obtained. That's just my opinion. EDIT: I meant to say not necessarily re the license Edited December 2, 2013 by Fodder Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tricky-Ricky Posted December 2, 2013 Share Posted December 2, 2013 Bought one recently and its a fresh install/license, you use the code that comes with the disk and its then verified on line by Microsoft. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stutopia Posted December 2, 2013 Share Posted December 2, 2013 (edited) You'll have to check the EULA, it may not be transferable. If it's come from a decent size company won't MS products in particular have been covered by a Volume License? I'd assume these are invalid for individual machines once they come out of the company. I bet you could extract the licence key with some freeware off the web and then reinstall post wipe. However, they may be encrypted in the registry. I'm sure I found an old windows product key from a Win XP install, but technology has moved on. Edited December 2, 2013 by SuperStu Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neo Posted December 3, 2013 Share Posted December 3, 2013 may come in handy - http://www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flex Posted December 3, 2013 Author Share Posted December 3, 2013 Cheers Neo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neo Posted December 3, 2013 Share Posted December 3, 2013 Cheers Neo No Problem, only used it on windows xp, worked no problem Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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