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Background:
A couple years or so ago, I purchased three (used) Dell Latitude E6410 laptop computers for a song ($25 each). They came with no hard drive, but that was not a problem. I got 1 TB Samsung SSD drives for them and that seems to be fine.
No hard drive also meant no OS was installed. But, they each DID come with their own Microsoft sticker (with a hologram) stating:
Windows(R) 7 Pro for Refurb PCs CIT
for Refurbished PCs
[barcode] XXX-NNNNN
do not tamper with or remove this label
[barcode] XNN-NNNNN
NNNNN-NNN-NNN-NNN
"For use on Refurbished PC - No Commercial Value - For Authentication Only"Where:
X represents a single letter
N represents a single decimal digit(Also says, vertically, on the edges:)
Certificate of Authenticity
Microsoftand
ww.microsoft.com/howtotell
Situation:
I'd previously downloaded an ISO (and verified the SHA1 and SHA256), but got stuck when trying to do an install; the format of the codes I have do not match the format of what Microsoft was expecting.
The location where I bought the laptops no longer offers computers for sale (it's a Goodwill store). Also, there are no tech-savvy workers at the location.
My primary problem is it is time to prepare my state and federal income taxes. I've used TurboTax for the past 5 years. (Yes, I could probably use their free on-line version today. But! I am not at all interested in having like 20-30 other domains active while I provide extremely personal and private information to fill out my taxes.) So, plan B is to get Windows up and running so I can fill out my taxes locally.
What now?
So, I have 3 never-been-used "codes" for installing Win 7 pro. There was a time when one had to fight to keep Microsoft from trying to upgrade to Windows 10, so I'd like to think there's some way for me to get to Win 10 from here.
So, I turn to my fellow Soylentils. How can I enter these codes? Is it still worthwhile to get 7 installed in hopes I can still upgrade to Windows 10?
Maybe some other approach? What can I do?
[2021-03-05 15:11:27 UTC; UPDATE 1: Currently downloading "Win10_20H2_v2_English_x64.iso" from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO -- looks like I have 2-2.5 hours left for the download to complete. (Currently at 920 MB of 5.8 GB completed)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 05 2021, @06:14PM (4 children)
I realize you are aiming at a Win 10 installation. Should this fail and you are instead able to get Win 7 Pro running (as these laptops ran originally?), my thought would be to leave well enough alone. I'm still running 7 Pro on a ThinkPad and it works just fine...and lets me turn off any number of nanny/phone-home features.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Friday March 05 2021, @07:08PM (3 children)
Windows 7 Support ended: 01/14/2020. I.E. no security updates, except by contract with Volume Licensing (corporations/schools) and even that ends 01/10/2023.
Don't use Windows 7, if you're connected to the internet. In the event you don't want to use Windows 10, switch OSes. Either jump ship to Apple or bite the bullet and learn Linux. You might be pleasantly surprised at how user-friendly some of the Linux Distributions are.
https://distrowatch.com/ [distrowatch.com] has a good listing of Linus OSes and some Non-Linux OSes, like ReactOS and FreeBSD.
I would highly suggest MXLinux as a good start point. The last couple of times I've used it, the experience has been rather pleasant. I also setup an MXLinux install for my Dad. He had an old computer with Vista on it. Now, he has a somewhat less old computer with MXLinux on it. I had to tinker with the Civilization IV install in Wine a little bit, but I was able to get it stable after doing a little research. PlayOnLinux was very useful in making the Civilization IV install process a breeze. Got Civilization II installed on it as well and that sucker is stupidly annoying to get working on Windows 10. There was still a bit of finicky stuff I had to work out, but it works about as well as I remember. Got the wonder videos, counsel, and music all running like it was 1996. The kicker was that I needed some 32-bit architecture installed for things to work at all. Once I figured that out, everything else was a breeze.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by Fnord666 on Friday March 05 2021, @07:38PM
I guess the question would be whether TurboTax will run under Wine or not.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by martyb on Friday March 05 2021, @08:51PM
When I installed and ran TurboTax *last* year, it issued a warning. Win 7 would be out of support the next year. Annnd, that if I wanted to continue to use TurboTax, I needed to upgrade to Win 10.
TurboTax only installs/runs on Windows.
I have now downloaded Win 10, and once installed, I should be good for a number of years.
I have NO first-hand experience with Wine, and when doing my income taxes, I'd like to keep the opportunities for mistakes to a minimum.
Glad to hear you had good luck with MXLinux... I'll keep it in mind.
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Saturday March 06 2021, @02:40AM
My Win7 box, Dell OEM, still gets security updates. But it doesn't matter as much as generally believed. Know how the bad guys find the holes? mostly by reverse-engineering the patches, which tell them exactly where to look. No new patches = no new clues.
But get updates is about all my lonely Win7 box does, because most of the time I use either XP or PCLinuxOS. (Compared to which, all other linux installers are painful, and not so fun to use either.)
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.