Quick Vista licensing question

Freakitchen · 6 Jul 2008 at 14:22

Hi guys. Am I right in thinking that an OEM version of Vista (Home Premium) CAN be moved to another machine if it's not yet been activated?

Cheers

Snakedoctor · 6 Jul 2008 at 14:24

If you havent activated it yet, then it should activate. If it's legal or not, I am uncertain. I guess it's ok if you completely remove it from the other machine.

Priapus · 6 Jul 2008 at 14:24

Hi,

As far as I know, that's right. If you haven't activated it yet, then you haven't agreed to the EULA, which states that OEM must be installed on one machine only. This is my view of it, however it may be wrong....it seems logical to me anyway.

Freakitchen · 6 Jul 2008 at 15:12

Thanks for the replies. What's concerning me is that, as I understand it, OEM versions of Vista become physically tied to the original motherboard. What I'm not sure of is whether this happens on the install, or on activation. Don't particularly want to 'try it and see' until I be sure that it'll activate fine on the other machine, or more specifically, that trying it on the other machine won't prevent me from re-installing it on the first machine, should it not work on the other (if that makes sense!)

dousland70 · 6 Jul 2008 at 15:16

Vista is tied to the motherboard only after activation and not on installation

dousland70 · 6 Jul 2008 at 15:21

One thing i will say and its not entirely relevent to the thread , i had an oem version of vista premium installed and my mobo died , i changed my motherboard ( different model ) and vista wouldnt re-activate , i phoned microsoft and explained my dialemma , and they kindly reactivated it for me.

This was a geniune case and im in no way saying that you should use that as an exploit for when you want to buy a new motherbaord

Fire Wizard · 6 Jul 2008 at 15:25

Freakitchen said:
Hi guys. Am I right in thinking that an OEM version of Vista (Home Premium) CAN be moved to another machine if it's not yet been activated?

Hello Freakitchen, an OEM license is tied, in terms of the license, to the machine it was originally installed on, regardless if you have activated it or not.

Please do not tie what you can physically do and what you can legally do together because they are not the same. Just as, you may have an activated copy of Windows but that doesn't necessary mean that you are using Windows legally.

Freakitchen · 6 Jul 2008 at 15:38

What surprises me is that, even though Vista has been around for a while, I'm yet to find absolute clarification on stuff like this!

Fire Wizard, I appreciate what you're saying if the software had come pre-installed on a bought machine, but I bought the software independently from any hardware, and have not yet activated it (as Ice on Fire suggested, have I accepted the EULA yet?)

I'm basically looking to move the copy, that I've only had installed for a couple of weeks on my main PC, to a media centre machine to make better use of the Media Centre software.

Fire Wizard · 6 Jul 2008 at 15:55

Freakitchen said:
What surprises me is that, even though Vista has been around for a while, I'm yet to find absolute clarification on stuff like this!

There are masses of threads regarding this, if you care to do a search, you will find claraification. To save you a bit of time though, have a look here, here, here and here. There are also plenty of other threads very similar to the above but I won't link you to them all.

Burnsy2023 has also written some very helpful information regarding this which can be found in this thread here.

I'm basically looking to move the copy, that I've only had installed for a couple of weeks on my main PC, to a media centre machine to make better use of the Media Centre software.

You will not be able to transfer an OEM license from one machine to another. If you wish to install Windows Vista on another machine, you will have to purchase a new license.