Surely they can just download a copy somewhere, the whole point of software is that you buy the license, not the actual code, right?
If you bought a PC and it came with Windows, then you should have a windows license (and associated product key or whatever) so reformatting should be fine.
All the laptops I had in the last years came with recovery partitions and you could only use them to reinstall the OS. I once downloaded a copy of XP Professional (illegally) and tried to enter the key that was printed on my ThinkPad, it didn’t work.
Maybe I was doing it wrong, I don’t know, but I couldn’t get it to work. I always had to rely on keys I got from elsewhere.
If there is some way that would be great but still not exactly solve the problem. Can you download Windows ISOs directly from Microsoft? I don’t think so. You might have a key but I don’t know of any easy way to get a Windows copy without paying.
The reinstallation disk I mentioned in my other post was stolen in a burglary. A couple of months later, I really needed to reinstall my Windows XP Pro machine. A friend volunteered to send me a burned copy of his Pro disk. It worked just fine.
(With the disks being stamped wholesale, I don't see too much wrong with this. Stealing the license code / functionality -- that would have been another matter.)
If you bought a PC and it came with Windows, then you should have a windows license (and associated product key or whatever) so reformatting should be fine.