oem win7

Fragg · 11 Oct 2011 at 19:26

i built my computer myself and the hard drive is western digital's 1tb black.

i am in need of windows 7 64bit as im just using their trial.

Am i able to instal oem software on my machine as the retail one is dearer?

Also, would i be able to upgrade from a winxp 32bit oem which i got with my old laptop?

Thanks in advance

robinbredin · 11 Oct 2011 at 20:49

Fragg
oem win7
i built my computer myself and the hard drive is western digital's 1tb black.

i am in need of windows 7 64bit as im just using their trial.

Am i able to instal oem software on my machine as the retail one is dearer?

Also, would i be able to upgrade from a winxp 32bit oem which i got with my old laptop?

Thanks in advance

You cant upgrade from XP, it has to be a clean install. Though retail is more dear, you can use it more often than OEM, as OEM is tied to the motherboard, and retail can be moved to another system. So I would go for the retail version.

shamus21 · 11 Oct 2011 at 21:18

if you can i would wait for windows 8

Fragg · 11 Oct 2011 at 21:26

shamus21 said:
if you can i would wait for windows 8

yeh i tried the beta - it was great, apart from a few drivers not working (as expected)

i will clear my harddrive when this win7 trial ends and i will use it again.
win8 probably wont come out til 2012 though

i was told microsoft are increasing the windows price by 20% by the end of month

red eye · 11 Oct 2011 at 23:42

robinbredin said:
You cant upgrade from XP, it has to be a clean install. Though retail is more dear, you can use it more often than OEM, as OEM is tied to the motherboard, and retail can be moved to another system. So I would go for the retail version.

so what happens when motherboard dies?

shamus21 · 12 Oct 2011 at 05:46

red eye said:
so what happens when motherboard dies?

Which version up grade or retail retail will you be using.

shamus21 · 12 Oct 2011 at 05:48

Fragg said:
yeh i tried the beta - it was great, apart from a few drivers not working (as expected)

i will clear my harddrive when this win7 trial ends and i will use it again.
win8 probably wont come out til 2012 though

i was told microsoft are increasing the windows price by 20% by the end of month

It look`s like they already have.

robinbredin · 12 Oct 2011 at 09:36

red eye

Originally Posted by robinbredin View Post
You cant upgrade from XP, it has to be a clean install. Though retail is more dear, you can use it more often than OEM, as OEM is tied to the motherboard, and retail can be moved to another system. So I would go for the retail version.

Click to expand...

so what happens when motherboard dies?

If you use a OEM copy and your motherboard dies, so does that copy of windows. If you have a retail version, then it is just a question of moving it to another system.

CaptainCrash · 12 Oct 2011 at 23:06

robinbredin said:
If you use a OEM copy and your motherboard dies, so does that copy of windows. If you have a retail version, then it is just a question of moving it to another system.

It would be a bit unreasonable (and probably unenforceable) if MS required you to buy a new OS because of a hardware failure... as I understand it, the OEM licence entitles you to replace a dead motherboard with a similar make/model, or the nearest equivalent if that model is no longer in production.