OEM and retail ?

Moonpie2 · 21 Aug 2007 at 18:23

Hello !!

In terms of software, what's the difference between OEM and retail versions ?
Actually, what does OEM stand for ? :confused:

modo77 · 21 Aug 2007 at 18:42

Original Equipment Manufacturer. Its supposed to be for one PC only, meaning you can upgrade a lot of it, but when your motherboard changes its classed as a new pc. You can call ms and say your mb has died and they will reactivate it. However you don’t technically have a license for it then.

The functionality of both oem and retail are identical

Moonpie2 · 21 Aug 2007 at 18:45

Ahhhh so when I register Vista, my mobo's "identity" will also be registered ?
So I can theoretically install an OEM version forever on the same mobo but if that changes, I may have a bit of an uphil struggle ?

modo77 · 21 Aug 2007 at 18:50

probably for the lifetime of the motherboard, I mean how many hardware changes would you make. Not sure if you could for example change the gpu 100 times.

Burnsy2023 · 21 Aug 2007 at 19:20

Moonpie2 said:
So I can theoretically install an OEM version forever on the same mobo but if that changes, I may have a bit of an uphil struggle ?

If the mobo changes for reasons other than faliure, you are no longer licensed.

Read the sticky

Burnsy

stoofa · 22 Aug 2007 at 04:30

In addition to the sticky I've re-written the response I used to type into nearly every single one of these threads - until it killed me!
I've uploaded it onto my site here:

http://www.cifi.com/computing/vistaoemretail1.html

Burnsy2023 · 22 Aug 2007 at 12:58

stoofa said:
In addition to the sticky I've re-written the response I used to type into nearly every single one of these threads - until it killed me!
I've uploaded it onto my site here:

http://www.cifi.com/computing/vistaoemretail1.html

Would you object to me adding some of that to a edited sticky? My intention is to rewrite the sticky at some point, its a bit of a mess

Burnsy

sulli · 22 Aug 2007 at 12:59

stoofa said:
In addition to the sticky I've re-written the response I used to type into nearly every single one of these threads - until it killed me!
I've uploaded it onto my site here:

http://www.cifi.com/computing/vistaoemretail1.html

Very useful link thanks. I will have to show it to a mate who ordered an oem thinking it was exactly the same as retail, silly boy he is always upgrading!
At least i will get a laugh out of it when he has to buy another copy

stoofa · 22 Aug 2007 at 18:05

burnsy2023 said:
Would you object to me adding some of that to a edited sticky? My intention is to rewrite the sticky at some point, its a bit of a mess

Burnsy

Not at all, feel free and if you notice any blazing mistakes I've made please let me know - we all know what a minefield MS licensing can be and I could have misinterpreted things which I'd want to rewrite.