windows7 oem for upgrade to 10

[Infinisearch]

I can get a good deal on windows 7 oem ATM. I'm thinking about buying it but wondering about two things before I commit.
1. I'm not building a new system but might in a year or two or three... is an oem license transferable? I have an old xp machine that fell into my lap that I want to install to in the meantime.
2. I'm considering it because the free upgrade to 10, is the upgrade transferable? So if I do a clean install on the xp machine upgrade to 10 and then build the new machine can I still upgrade the new machine to 10 again for free? I of course would do a fresh install on the newly built machine.

Any other things I should be concerned about?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

It's technically not transferable to a new machine. Technically, the limit is a simple hardware change (memory and/or HDD for example). More extensive changes aren't technically eligible to maintain the OEM license.

However, MS rarely ever enforces that. So massive changes in hardware will still be able to maintain the OEM license, you just have to call MS support to get it re-activated.

I'm not sure if they're lenient enough to transfer a license to a completely new computer, however.

The other consideration is that once it is upgraded to Windows 10, that will be considered a Windows Upgrade edition and not an OEM edition at that point. Or at least would be with the traditional model, since you had to pay for the upgrade. With Windows 10 being a free upgrade, it muddies things a bit, but I'd be willing to bet that it would still be considered a Windows Upgrade version (different product activation key than an OEM version) and not a Windows OEM version.

So to be clear. The Win7 may or may not get transferred. But a Windows 10 upgrade would likely be transferable. No guarantees, though. Use at your own risk, etc.

Regards,
SB

 

[Grall]

However, MS rarely ever enforces that.

They couldn't even enforce it without running into consumer protection laws. It'd be fraud, pretty much. So they just make it somewhat inconvenient for people instead, having to call in and press a lot of numbers into their phones, but it does work...

 

[Arwin]

If you're building a truly new machine, then by that time I would imagine you could get a cheap upgrade licence along with one of the major components. Windows 10 may also well become much cheaper to non-commercial users anyway. Also, in the worst case scenario, your current machine can stay around and be running Windows 10.

I had an old machine that barely ran Windows 7 anymore, but now with the Windows 10 preview machine it is completely viable again.