Can someone settle this once and for all (Vista OEM)

I have been rather surprised by just how many people have gone the retail route this time.
I have only ever bought retail - as each OS is released I buy a retail upgrade and I know that the product will last me the lifetime of the OS no matter how many upgrades I make.
I was expecting a lot of people to take the OEM route, but a fair few people have seen that retail is the route of less resistance with regards future hardware upgrades.

If people who had looked at Ultimate OEM had stopped and instead gone for retail but a lower version they would find that they still have all the features they require but in retail - so no activation worries in the future.

The way I see it, if you're going to be incorrectly licensed you might as well not be licensed at all.
All these people who look to buy "Dell" licenses or OEM to go on more than one machine etc.
Those people might just as well go online and pirate it as they are no more legal etc.
 
dmpoole said:
Just out of interest is there a way that Microsoft know you changed your motherboard or is all this license stuff down to being honest?

no theres noway of microsoft knowing you've changed your motherboard.... they only know you've changed something...

it's all down to being honest
 
Last edited:
Surely the licence would be still valid if you had just 1 peice of same hardware from a previous PC if you have upgraded such as say a HardDrive.

It kind of seems daft to have the licence limited to the motherboard as if the board should become faulty or totaly fail then so does your OEM OS according to what i've read and heard.

Im looking to buy Vista at some point this year, more than likely towards the end as its likely I will be doing a big hardware upgrade same time.

Can you use the upgrade version of home premium with Win 2000 Pro and then it becomes same as retail version ?
 
WHAT!!! said:
Can you use the upgrade version of home premium with Win 2000 Pro and then it becomes same as retail version ?

depends if your windows 2000 pro is oem or retail..

if your windows 2000 pro is oem then no , vista will be oem

if your windows 2000 pro is retail then yes , vista will be retail.

WHAT!!! said:
It kind of seems daft to have the licence limited to the motherboard as if the board should become faulty or totaly fail then so does your OEM OS according to what i've read and heard.

if the motherboard fails and if it's still under Warranty u can get a replacemeant motherboard from the manufacturer and u can still be albe to use your license..
 
Last edited:
gareth170 said:
depends if your windows 2000 pro is oem or retail..

if your windows 2000 pro is oem then no , vista will be oem

if your windows 2000 pro is retail then yes , vista will be retail.



if the motherboard fails and if it's still under Warranty u can get a replacemeant motherboard from the manufacturer and u can still be albe to use your license..

Also I believe if your motherboard fails and you are unable to get a like for like replacement, you can still reactivate on whatever new board you do happen to get.
 
glissando said:
Most of the stuff I've read says that OEM copies of Vista can only be activated once, however my friend is 'sure' that they work the same as OEM XP, which I've been able to activate a million times even when I changed PCs. So which is correct? Can you re-activate it all you want; not at all; or only on the same hardware? Cheers.

Ok when you buy a OEM of VISTA and you install in on your comp. You activate it, now that copy that you installed is registered to the motherboard. You can intsall it as many times as you like providing your using the exact same motherboard you registered Vista with the very first time.

If you format your pc, you will have to re register but it WILL let you, since your using the same Mobo. This = Legal.

Now if you install Vista on a pc and register it and then you install it on another pc, you will be able to use Vista for a certain amount of days, i think its 30, then you have no choice you WILL have to register. When you try and register it online, you wont be able to, since its a different Motherboard.

If you ring up Microsoft, depending on who you speak to, you might get lucky and they might give you a new code.

Now glissando you said you can activate XP as many times as you like, so can i and so can a million other people, this is most likely because MS have brung out their new O/S (Vista) and want to make sure no one is illegally using their product. So they are being so much more easy going with XP.

When MS release another O/S, it will be the same situation as it is now, with XP and Vista. They will be more easy going with Vista but will be much stricter with their new O/S.
 
stickroad said:
Now glissando you said you can activate XP as many times as you like, so can i and so can a million other people, this is most likely because MS have brung out their new O/S (Vista) and want to make sure no one is illegally using their product. So they are being so much more easy going with XP.


xp and vista are same but being activated doesn't mean its Legal..

e.g if a person as vista and they've changed the motherboard, the person could just lie and just say they've changed the hdd... same with xp.....

this is only a e.g.

do not do this......
 
Last edited:
gareth170 said:
xp and vista are same but being activated doesn't mean its Legal..

e.g if a person as vista and they've changed the motherboard, the person could just lie and just say they've changed the hdd... same with xp.....

this is only a e.g.

do not do this......

Could you please make your post clearer, i could not understand it?
 
stickroad said:
Could you please make your post clearer, i could not understand it?

ok..

xp and vista are same about activating but being activated doesn't mean its Legal..


let's say a person as vista oem and the person changed the motherboard, the person could phone microsoft and just say they've changed the hard drive, (which is a lie) but microsoft would activate it because they think the person is telling the truth...

same with xp

this is only a example...

do not do this......

should i delete this??
 
Last edited:
gareth170 said:
being activated and being licensed are to different things...

if your vista is oem then your not licensed now because you've changed your motherboard...
I probably should point out it was a replacement motherboard. My original P5W broke and Asus replaced it. Windows detected it was a different motherboard but surely my licence should be retained? If not why didn't MS say so when I phoned them?
 
As said in a previous post - if your motherboard fails and you receive a warranty replacement then this is fine, it is still covered by the original license as it is outside of your control.

Before anyone else mentions about "Reactivated it millions of times" & "Moved it from machine to machine without a problem" once again (these threads will be the death of me) there is a MASSIVE difference between what can be physically done and what can be legally done.

Let me put it this way.
I'm driving around and for whatever reason I lose my driving license because I've been speeding, etc.
When I lose my license I can no longer drive my car, I'm off the road, I'm banned.
Now if I put the key in the ignition turn the engine on and attempt to drive off what do you think will happen?
I'm no longer licensed to drive that vehicle (legally done) but what is going to physically stop me (physically done).
 
Domo said:
I probably should point out it was a replacement motherboard. My original P5W broke and Asus replaced it. Windows detected it was a different motherboard but surely my licence should be retained? If not why didn't MS say so when I phoned them?

your license is still valid because asus replaced your motherboard...
 
gareth170 said:
no theres noway of microsoft knowing you've changed your motherboard.... they only know you've changed something...

it's all down to being honest

I'm not sure if that's the case, from what i've read from technet, the hardware has does send soem manufacturer specific information.

Burnsy
 
I thought I really should just give some clarification here.

As stoofa and gareth have said, being licensed and legal is not the same as what is technically possible. If you don't care about staying licensed you may as well download a cracked copy from any peer to peer network, it's about the same legally.

To answer the OP's question simply: you can activate your copy of Windows as much as you want as long as you stay licensed.

Have a look at the sticky, there's plenty of info there.

Burnsy
 
burnsy2023 said:
I'm not sure if that's the case, from what i've read from technet, the hardware has does send soem manufacturer specific information.

Burnsy

that could be just for the online activate..
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom