Hi woodman,

Welcome to Vista x64 Forums.

It depends. If the installed Vista is valid, then you can just use the product key number that was used to activate it with the new Vista installation DVD. This will show you how to see the product key number in the installed Vista if there was one used to activate it.

Product Key Number


If the installed Vista is the same edition as the new Vista installation DVD, then you could also just change the product key number to the new one instead of reinstalling everything. You can see how to change the poduct key number in Step One step 5 in this tutorial.

Activate Vista by Phone


Hope this helps,
Shawn

Valid as in not a duplicate copy and the product key number is not trying to be used on more than one computer. Otherwise it will not activate on your computer.

Originally Posted by woodman

I bought a used system and there is no vista install disk ,so to make things right can i buy a copy of 32 ultimate ,install it then use the new liscence and will it pick up the programs i am running ,or will i have to re-install right from scratch re-formatting etc
Xp was like ,you could run it over top of an old copy and all data and programs would come back

Have you checked the manuals of your computer for instructions on how to access the recovery partition? These instructions will also normally show you how to make your own backup recovery DVD for in-case the drive containing the recovery partition fails. Some computers come with an installed utility that can do this. Again, check the manuals.

If your new computer does not have a recovery partition, and you where not provided with a recovery DVD (even if it is only a Vista OEM disk), then you should query the supplier as to why you don't have these options.