I bought a refurbished laptop that originally came with Windows XP.  The refurbisher put on Windows 7 Pro and there's a new Certificate of Authenticity on the bottom of the laptop next to the old Windows XP one.  It says "Windows 7 Pro Refurbished PCs".

Here's a pic I pulled of the internet - mine looks exactly like this:



Is this the same thing as System Builder keys, where it is permanently attached to the motherboard?  It matters because I plan to do a motherboard swap into this refurbished laptop's chassis, and if it's tied to the MB then I'll wait to activate it until I have my actual MB in.

Never heard of this "Windows 7 Pro Refurbished PCs" COA before.

Still not sure if it's tied to the motherboard, but the refurb key activated fine on a clean install of Windows 7 Pro.

It's a special OEM SKU for refurbing.  Just like any OEM key it's married to the computer.  It has to stay with that computer legally, but this does not stop you from swapping hardware.

I purchased the refurb laptop and THEN put in a new motherboard after buying it.  The refurbisher's SLIC table is gone because I have a completely different MB in there now that the refurbisher did not intend.

I installed using a Windows 7 retail disc, and I activated it using the refurb key that was on the bottom of the laptop.  It activated online without issue.  

So, the SLIC table seems to have been irrelevant in this case.

I don't know if it's important, but I never activated the refurb key on the old MB.  I thought that since the refurb key might just be an OEM/System Builder key, I didn't want to tie it to a motherboard that was going to end up in my junk pile.  The first time the refurb key was activated was when I did so on the new MB I swapped in.