should i leave the windows COA on bottom of laptop? the copy was registered in my name and im not sure if its safe to leave it there for the next guy who has this laptop. i had to delete hard drive and there is nothing on it now so the next guy will have to install his own copy but he asked me if COA is still there. is this safe?
Yes, the version of Windows on your laptop was OEM, meaning that it is legally tied to the hardware on which it was originally installed. If you sell the machine, you cannot carry the Windows license with you (not legally anyway). Leaving the COA should be safe, if you are implying in terms of personal privacy.
that depends on if you are including the original system disks with the machine. registration means nothing to the next owner, your information can not be acquired using that Windows serial.(COA) they will have to re-activate it if it is Vista, but that is a minor inconvenience. like was just said above, you cant take the OS with you and sell the machine, it is legally required to be used on that machine....if you try to install it on something else, depending on the manufacturer, it either will not install once it checks and sees that it is not being installed on the correct PC or it will install but you will have major driver issues unless you install it on a machine with the same hardware. bottom line.....if you sell the laptop, include the original system disks like you are supposed to, its only fair to the next owner.
