Is a Windows XP licence lost if you clean install Win7 Upgrade version?

[Eric Legge]

Hi all,

You have to perform a clean installation of Windows 7 when using the upgrade version to upgrade from Windows XP.

But, if you install the Upgrade version of Windows 7 Home Premium on a Windows XP Pro system on a different partition, does doing so invalidate your Windows XP Pro license and make it impossible to have a dual-boot system unless you buy a new XP license?

No one on the web seems to know for sure. The licence agreement for Win7 says that this is the case. If you upgrade from Windows XP to Win7, you lose Windows XP.

 

[kimsland]

If you upgrade XP then that XP version will be lost
But if you use your XP license to install Windows 7 on another partition, then your XP will still be valid
BUT, only in the partitions, ie you cannot use your specific XP on one machine and your upgrade of Windows 7 on another computer

 

[Eric Legge]

This forum thread does a good job of answering my question:

http://forums.scotsnewsletter.com/index.php?showtopic=29672

 

[kimsland]

Really?

Well its wrong

You can still have XP on one partition and Windows 7 on the other legally
As Upgrade means on the entire Harddrive or another harddrive (With XP already installed) and the license of Windows 7 carries the entire harddrive, therefore the separate partition of XP is valid (which also has a key)

Just like every single other upgrade of OS in the past