Windows Vista - What's the deal?

Peter Tsang

Peter Tsang

Peter Tsang

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23 Dec 2008
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I take it that installing Windows Vista on a PC will register that PC's CPU to Microsoft and if you want to reinstall the same licensed Vista after the CPU is upgraded, the installation won't do, is that true or that's just a rumour?
 
OEM Vista means that your installation is tied to the motherboard. Normal Vista can be installed as many times as you want within reason.
 
Not true. OEM versions of Vista are tied to the motherboard, meaning that if the motherboard gets changed, legally your copy of Vista becomes invalid. That being said, you won't necessarily face problems activating that same copy of Vista on a new motherboard.
 
It's the motherboard (pretty much the same as OEM XP, which used a points system which meant that any motherboard upgrade, as opposed to a similar replacement, would require reactivation).

OEM is perfectly legal, at worst you could violate the licence if you changed your board and reactivated, but in practice as MS authorised the reactivation, it would be unlikely to go anywhere in a civil court.
 
Peter Tsang said:
Amongst all 4 versions of Vista Basic, Home, Business and Ultimate, which is the best for gaming?
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There's not much in it for gaming, but home premium is generally the best option for home desktop use, unless you either (a) can't run aero (get vista basic, but you probably don't want to think about changing at all) or (b) specifically need something provided by ultimate.
 
Dolph,
The following games, will they run on Vista 64-bits? (pointless to get 32-bits)
Battlefield 2
Battlefield 2142
Call of Duty : Modern Warfare
Call of Duty World at War
Rise of Nations
Company of Heroes
World in Conflict
Gran Theft Auto IV
 
http://www.ntcompatible.com/compatibility.html can sometimes be helpful for finding out if games will work on certain operating system versions. From a quick scan, seems that you should be okay for the Battlefields and GTA. Didn't look up the rest.

World in Conflict is fine according to MS - http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility/Search.aspx?type=Software&s=world in conflict
Ditto for Rise of Nations (via same site).

General Googling says CoD Modern Warfare and World at War are fine.

Chong Warrior said:
Well I bought a 2nd hand version of Vista Home Premium 64-bit OEM and installed in on a completely new PC and had no problems installing and activating it.
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Problem is that, as the second hand licence is invalid, you are in the same situation as if you'd downloaded a pirated copy for free. Both work, but neither is actually valid (even if activation is successful). There's a reason why OEM versions are cheaper, and part of that is because they aren't transferrable licences.
 
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Cobertizo said:
Problem is that, as the second hand licence is invalid, you are in the same situation as if you'd downloaded a pirated copy for free. Both work, but neither is actually valid (even if activation is successful). There's a reason why OEM versions are cheaper, and part of that is because they aren't transferrable licences.
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What difference does it make if it's activated and updating?
 
Peter Tsang said:
Dolph,
The following games, will they run on Vista 64-bits? (pointless to get 32-bits)
Battlefield 2
Battlefield 2142
Call of Duty : Modern Warfare
Call of Duty World at War
Rise of Nations
Company of Heroes
World in Conflict
Gran Theft Auto IV
Click to expand...

Yes, I have most of these games on Ult 64
 
Chong Warrior said:
Well I bought a 2nd hand version of Vista Home Premium 64-bit OEM and installed in on a completely new PC and had no problems installing and activating it.
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I'm interested in this from an argument point of view. Are you legally entitled to sell your oem version of Vista then-and the person who has purchased that copy entitled to be treated as a new user?
 
ethan said:
I'm interested in this from an argument point of view. Are you legally entitled to sell your oem version of Vista then-and the person who has purchased that copy entitled to be treated as a new user?
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Not really an argument to be had, sadly. The answer is just a straight no... Retail, yes, OEM, no.
 
Thanks folks! Looks like I can get a slight boost in performance from Vista 64bits becoz according to what COD5 says on the box, it supports multi-cores and 64bits so is GTA IV.
 
Brian Stuart said:
How many more times. Your copy of Vista is not legal. Why bother wasting money buying an unlicensed version when you could download one for free. Oh I see, then you would be using pirated software whereas now you have "paid" for it.:rolleyes:
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If it's not legal then why do Microsoft support assist people in re-activating it in entirely new PC's? why do they encourage this ghastly act of "piracy"?

The fact is people who have payed the extra for a retail copy care more about this issue than Microsoft do, Microsoft don't seem to mind if you transfer an OEM license as long as it's used on a single PC only, if they did mind they would just tell people "No!" when they tried to transfer it.
 
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