I love my thinkpad... but I've always paved over the factory image the moment I got my new laptop. This is egregious beyond a doubt, but it does not affect me so I'm not worried about buying more of their laptops.
The, it didn't effect me because I reformatted is kind of a "First they came for the communists..." argument.
Oh and that I run a website over https matters too. I want that all users have the same expectation what that means.
I get it if I'm wiping out and putting on Linux or something, but that always seems like I'm wasting something I've already bought.
Using Lenovo's recovery images will reinstall the same bloat that it originally came with
Or procure a legit, OEM install disk/image and reload using the key affixed to the bottom* of the laptop.
*Pre-8 days, now you get to "hope" the gUEFI recognizes the media and auto-populates the embedded key for you. When(not 'if' in my experience) it doesn't, then "buy more" is the only option outside of Linux.
You can definitely use an OEM disk of your exact version with your printed serial. I too have had to procure new keys for win8 machines (did two last week that wouldn't recognize the keys on my machine)
What you may of had issue with was your OEM license being activated too many times -- if that happens, the automatic online activation will not work. You must use the phone number to activate your license, and it will ask "how many computers is this license installed on"... of course you just give the answer "one" and it activates it with no problem.
Are you referring to all flavors(Home Basic/Home Premium/Pro/Ultimate) from one disk? Installing retail/OEM from one disk has never been the case in my experience, though I have limited experience with 'retail' installs. I joined TechNet ~6 years back to obtain ISOs to reload various x32/x64/Vista/7 installs, but none of the machines' OEM keys I tried would work with the TN ISO's. If I'm not mistaken, they were specifically 'retail' ISOs.
No, Home/Pro/Ultimate are separate disks -- but OEM/Retail are exactly the same thing. You have to phone in your activation however, since OEM keys usually do not automatically activate over the internet.
Vista and up, there is no such thing as an OEM ISO image. XP had that and it was a great pain for support...
If you mean OEM in the sense of the pre-installed image on your recovery partition... that's not an "OEM" install in the same sense as the XP disks were... that's a customized image either made by something like nLite or installed on a generic factory laptop, pre-loaded with garbage, ran sysprep (to genericsize it) and imaged to a file.
The recovery image/factory image does not use the license on the bottom of your laptop usually -- it uses a factory volume license key that is pre-activated on the image. However if you try to recover that key with some key extractor, and use it to activate another installation from an official ISO, it will not work -- ie. that license will only activate at the factory. If you use the license from the bottom of your laptop, you need a genuine microsoft iso.
So long as you have a Windows 7 Pro license key on the bottom of your laptop, and use a Windows 7 Pro ISO, it will work.. or Home and Home, etc...
And... you appear to be absolutely correct.
"Vista and up, there is no such thing as an OEM ISO image. XP had that and it was a great pain for support..."
I was not aware OEM & RETAIL installation media were merged, cannot locate any search results verifying this, but I cannot find any recent issues being discussed either. Site where I buy software still has the categories distinguished & separate, but I never considered the media became one and the same w/ only distinction being the key itself(and all rights afforded Retail over OEM). I had numerous problems installing 7 when it appeared on consumer devices before I did any machine builds w/ 7(and made images of installation media that came with their licenses), hence my subscribing to TechNet(R.I.P.) before Digital River links became ubiquitous... and yeah, I have a dozen+ variants of XP due both to it's OEM/RETAIL duality plus the never-ending sfc /scannow prompt: "please insert original installation media" if XP received any Service Packs since original installation.
I do now recall unlocking Vista & 7 disks to install any flavor now that you mention nLight... another contributor to my lapse. Plus, I did find official MS pages that support your last point on unique disks for each flavor... I thought it was just for Enterprise.
EDIT:
"You have to phone in your activation however, since OEM keys usually do not automatically activate over the internet."
After activation failure, you can opt to insert a different key & retype the same key a 2nd time for online activation. That always irked me, I thought it was a bug.
Typically the "OEM" purchase of the ISO Disk comes in just a plain white envelope (with COA sticker somewhere on it) and "no official microsoft support" since it's intended for "systems builders" who microsoft expects to have their own support for consumers. A lot of people who build their own rigs choose this option because the "OEM" package is usually $10-$30 cheaper. The "Retail" packaging just comes with the fancy case with color inserts, etc... and "official microsft support".
If you are building your own rig, you're probably unlikely to call Microsoft for anything. If you are some company's internal-IT, you're unlikely to call Microsoft for anything.... Heck, if you are installing your own Windows installation, you're unlikely to call Microsoft for anything... So i just always buy the "OEM" packaging when I need a new license.
So the difference there is really just the packaging the ISO/Disk comes in and whether or not it has "official" support by Microsoft. Otherwise the ISO image on the disk is identical. :)
https://www.thurrott.com/uncategorized/1146/clean-pc-walkthr...
So, that communication your girlfriend might send you over https is not private any longer.
Go figure.