W7 is still installed to the harddrive,
That surprises me. That is, no Sticker key in the W7 era. I'd not heard of it until W8-ish. I supposed it was all to do with the manufacturer.
I became suspicious that the key thing was getting expensive to do in mass numbers - tying a number to an installation and then the label print. I wondered if they just pumped out the key with the OEM mentioned in it, and they were the same but some clever trick stopped a master Windows file being stolen.
Best Buy in Texas wanted $170 for overcoming the problem. It seems they could do it even if the HD had failed. Since the owner never knew the key, they'd be unaware of a change if there was one. However, now you say Belarc can see the key, it would be possible to know if they'd changed it.
The only reason I'd like to know now is that I'd spent so much time probing and I don't like not getting answers.
Happening more and more these days.
