OS Deal at Microsoft

joroma

joroma

joroma

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Beavering away on my PC last night having done a complete reinstall and suddenly I get a message telling me I’ve got a counterfeit copy of XP on it!!!
I bought the PC at a Computer Fair with the OS pre-installed about three years ago but haven’t kept any receipts so can’t take advantage of Microsofts free offer so I am going to buy a genuine OS. Microsoft are offering me XP Pro for £92. Does anybody know what version of Pro this will be ie OEM or will it be the MS supported retail version or is it some other version? Seems like a good deal to me.
 
It will be OEM in the sense that you can only use it on that machine. £92 is about what it costs to buy XP Pro OEM from an online store.

IMO you'd be better off buying XP Home OEM for about £55-60.
 
Depends what you plan on using the machine for.

If you are gonna be browsing the web, playing games, using MS office etc then XP home is perfect and cheap too :)

However if you gonna be messing with networks and advanced tools within windows then you will want XP Pro.
 
If I get Home OEM will I be able to "legalise" my current OS without doing another reinstall? The MS offer includes an email with a key and instructions which will allow me to make my current OS legal without a reinstall. Also I am trying to avoid having to contact MS everytime I upgrade my pc.
 
joroma said:
If I get Home OEM will I be able to "legalise" my current OS without doing another reinstall?
Click to expand...

No :) You'd need to do a fresh install.

The MS offer includes an email with a key and instructions which will allow me to make my current OS legal without a reinstall. Also I am trying to avoid having to contact MS everytime I upgrade my pc.
Click to expand...

Up to you but just so long as you realise you don't need to spend £92, there is a much cheaper legal alternative, albeit slightly less convenient initially as you need to install from scratch. What's an hour to save £32 though :)
 
joroma said:
If I get Home OEM will I be able to "legalise" my current OS without doing another reinstall? The MS offer includes an email with a key and instructions which will allow me to make my current OS legal without a reinstall. Also I am trying to avoid having to contact MS everytime I upgrade my pc.
Click to expand...

You cannot get around the need to reactivate the OS after a substantial upgrade I'm afraid as all versions of WinXP require activation - with the exception of the Corporate Edition.
The Corporate Edition will not be an option to you unless you are buying volume licenses.

Every copy of Windows allows you x number of online activations and after that it's a five minute call to a toll-free phone number so not exactly the end of the world.

Only people who feel they have they need to reinstall their OS every 31 days really have a problem with PA - although I personally feel that if you're reinstalling the OS that often you've got more serious problems!

If I were you I'd just grab the copy of WinXP Home.
It's a nice £30 saving - the main feature loss in Home over Pro is the ability to take part on a Windows Domain - something you will not be doing at home anyway.
MS even removed all the stigma in SP2 and all the screens etc just say "Windows XP" these days rather than "Windows XP Home" so people won't even know!
 
Hi all,

OEM Windows, do you still have to buy with a PC part/etc? & if so, would a part that was purchased recently be considered?

Thanx
 
So if I get a copy of XP Home how can I save all my existing setup so that I can reinstall with the minimum fuss onto the new OS?
I've got a 160gb hard drive split into three partitions c:20gb for OS/Utilities D:45gb for programme files and E:85gb for all data/images/music.
I've got a 2nd 160gb drive that is newly formatted and I can use to back everything up onto.
I have spent ages (lots more than an hour!) installing all my software including all the MS Office updates and can't face the thought of doing it all again!!
 
Hmm I wonder if he really means retail in the sense that you are permitted to install it on as many new PCs as you want (not at the same time) - if that is the case then it would be a very cheap price. It could be that he said 'full' meaning that it isn't a cut down version in terms of features, rather than it has the retail license.
 
It *seems* rather odd if they give you a proper full XP Pro retail license for £92. I mean why would anyone then spend £200 buying it from a shop? :)
 
If it is a Full Retail license then it is worthwhile.
A retail license can be transferred from machine to machine - so long as you first remove it from the old machine.

I always buy Retail Upgrade Licenses (even though they are slightly more expensive than OEM licenses) for that very reason.
 
joroma said:
Beavering away on my PC last night having done a complete reinstall and suddenly I get a message telling me I’ve got a counterfeit copy of XP on it!!!
Click to expand...

just to let you know why this happened, one of the recent automatic updates from microsoft was a program that would ensure that peoples system had a legit copy of windows on it (which i have).

i personally don't have auto update (and install) enabled, i prefer to just be notified and decide if i think it's worth it. bet a lot of dodgy users are gonna get caught out on this one. :D
 
Answer from Microsoft Forum to my question is it the full retail version of XP Pro with Microsoft Support:

"No matter what, you will have to reactivate when you reinstall Windows. But yes :) Having genuine Windows will allow you to recieve full support and updates."

Not sure if that means it is Retail or OEM Version?
 
Hard to say because both answers you were given over there are ambiguous aren't they.

Perhaps you could try a third time and try asking like this...

Will I get a full retail license, exactly the same as if I purchased the boxed retail version of Windows XP in a store? If I build a completely new PC in future, will I be able to use this disc to install Windows or will I need to buy another license?

Common sense suggests to me that the price being half of what it costs to buy XP Pro retail in a store, means it surely can't have the same license terms. Otherwise anyone wanting XP retail would just be able to install the warez version, get the message saying it isn't legal, and pay a vastly reduced price to get it :)

I'm surprised none of the Windows gurus in here like NathanE or Otacon have posted as I bet they know the answer ;)
 
dirtydog said:
Common sense suggests to me that the price being half of what it costs to buy XP Pro retail in a store, means it surely can't have the same license terms. Otherwise anyone wanting XP retail would just be able to install the warez version, get the message saying it isn't legal, and pay a vastly reduced price to get it :)
Click to expand...

This whole thing has been announced as a big special offer from Microsoft, it's not too astonishing that it might actually be a good deal. Certainly, it's a fully supported version, which makes it much less OEM and much more Retail. It's quite believable for the license terms to be Retail, of course without the expensive box and so forth.

Also bear in mind that Microsoft have never really intended an OEM version to be sold to the public seperately from a computer anyway. It would be unprecedented for them to directly sell a copy of Windows that could only be installed on one computer. Hence I'm guessing that this is a full retail version of Windows.

As for "anyone wanting XP retail would get the warez version", that seems really quite unlikely. The number of people buying boxed versions of Windows XP is fairly tiny anyone, but consists of people who very much want to keep the law and get a proper "safe" boxed version. They're not going to walk into the market and see "W1nd0ze XP 2000 £4.99" and buy it in order to claim a cheap copy. The offer is aimed mostly at people who've been scammed and have already paid a high price for something that they thought was a genuine copy of Windows - or perhaps it came with their computer.
 
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