Windows XP Home vs Windows XP Professional

neocon · 27 Aug 2006 at 15:19

I am currently using Win200 with my Core2 system. I am planning on buying xp home edition, but should I muster another £10 and buy professional edition?

neocon · 27 Aug 2006 at 15:28

This guy is selling MICROSOFT WINDOWS XP PROFESSIONAL OEM + KEY SEALED.

In the description it says "This is an unused, unregistered and sealed edition of Microsoft Windows XP Professional. It is the DELL OEM version, therefore it includes the CD, the product key."

He rekons it can be installed on any type of PC. Is this true?

VaderDSL · 27 Aug 2006 at 15:30

OEM has to be bought along with hardware does it not? And also OEM is usually tied to a specific system or even a motherboard?

Add to that he's selling a DELL OEM, that surely means you have to buy it along with the DELL PC that it was supplied with?

I might be way off though

celliott · 27 Aug 2006 at 15:33

Its basically just a pack that comes with Dell PC's, its a standard version of XP.

As its still sealed you should have no problem activating it and it can be done on any pc.

neocon · 27 Aug 2006 at 15:33

He ships a piece of hardware with it apparently.

celliott · 27 Aug 2006 at 15:33

To comply with OEM rules yep, it will be worthless though.

neocon · 27 Aug 2006 at 15:34

So at £53 it's a good buy?

Energize · 27 Aug 2006 at 15:35

Yes. The only real difference between home and pro is the networking features like the built in ftp client and adding computers to a domain.

Burnsy2023 · 27 Aug 2006 at 21:42

neocon said:
So at £53 it's a good buy?

£53 for a totally illegal version of windows? Bad deal in my mind.

Firstly OEM software doesn't need to be bought with hardware anymore.

Secondly, its DELL OEM software and will say "only to be supplied with a new Dell system". Which means it's will be totally illegal. Large OEM vendors have their own pool of product keys and they will be able to tell if its a Dell system and have every right to refuse activation.

You may not be able to actiavte your product!

They have already started to do such things

I would avoid like wild fire!

Burnsy

Edit: as for which version of Windows to use, stay with home unless your on a Domain.

Edit2: Read the Licensing sticky

celliott · 27 Aug 2006 at 22:54

I dont see any problem with it. These packs probably come from Damaged Dell PC's or are unwanted. If they are Unused, Unregistered, Unactivated I dont see any reason why this would be illigal. I have seen these sold for along time on *some auction site* and I have yet to see negative feedback from a buyer.

Burnsy2023 · 27 Aug 2006 at 23:00

celliott said:
I dont see any problem with it. These packs probably come from Damaged Dell PC's or are unwanted. If they are Unused, Unregistered, Unactivated I dont see any reason why this would be illigal. I have seen these sold for along time on *some auction site* and I have yet to see negative feedback from a buyer.

They are illegal becuase of the nature of the OEM license. They can be unwanted or from damaged PCs, but they are also "non transferable" and so can't be used on another PC.

Just because the seller doen't have any feedback doesn't mean its legal or that you won't have problems activating.

MS don't have to allow you to activate, if they refuse you have bought a worthless product. Buy a proper OEM version of Home Edition for £60.

Burnsy

FatRakoon · 28 Aug 2006 at 04:49

Absolute rubbish.

Its a new Sealed copy, the licence has never been activated, so yes, it will go straight onto a PC ( Any PC ) and MS wont bother you about it.

Whether its DELL or any other manufacturer, makes no difference.

I have bought a number of these and not once have I had any issues with any of them.

Hell, I have even taken the stickers off dead PCs and used them on other systems, and the very few times I have had to phone MS about it, I just told them the truth... The original Mobo died and I have had to replace it with another Board and its gone on just fine.

At the end of the day, the licence has never been activated, so no, MS dont know whather its off a Dell or not.

Once its been activated however, thats a different story, but if its sealed, its perfectly ok to use it on any PC you bloody well want to.

So, at £53 its a steal!

Lucifurr · 28 Aug 2006 at 09:02

I would not buy that copy of Windows XP PRO. The Dell XP CDs we get at my work are Dell branded and can ONLY be installed on a DELL machine. If you install it on a non DELL machine you will be asked for a licence key when you activate Windows (despit it not needed to be activated when on a Dell machine). No matter what licence key you enter, it will not activate.

That been my experience anyway.

Burnsy2023 · 28 Aug 2006 at 13:38

FatRakoon said:
Absolute rubbish.

Its a new Sealed copy, the licence has never been activated, so yes, it will go straight onto a PC ( Any PC ) and MS wont bother you about it.

Ok there are two points here.
A) Will it technically work? Possibly, some Dell OEM CDs will query the BIOS and see if its a Dell machine, Some won't.

B) The legal side. This is a lot more cut and dry, it IS illegal software, the license is only for distribution with a new Dell machine.

FatRakoon said:
Whether its DELL or any other manufacturer, makes no difference.

MS can tell if you are using the OEM software on a non qualified machine. What they choose to do with that information in the future remains to be seen.

FatRakoon said:
I have bought a number of these and not once have I had any issues with any of them.

Well you are lucky, but this may change, remember you used to be able to get updates on unlicensed software, that changed. If MS continue with their policy of enforcing their licensing which in all likelyhood is almost certain, they could stop you reactivating. They might not, but you are using unlicensed software and they can stop you if they wish.

FatRakoon said:
Hell, I have even taken the stickers off dead PCs and used them on other systems, and the very few times I have had to phone MS about it, I just told them the truth... The original Mobo died and I have had to replace it with another Board and its gone on just fine.

OK MS let you activate it, but they shouldn't have. They will tighten up activation procedures sooner or later.

FatRakoon said:
At the end of the day, the licence has never been activated, so no, MS dont know whather its off a Dell or not.

Again, wrong, they just choose not to use that informoation.

FatRakoon said:
Once its been activated however, thats a different story, but if its sealed, its perfectly ok to use it on any PC you bloody well want to.

That is if your not fussed about breaking the EULA.

FatRakoon said:
So, at £53 its a steal!

Nice wording, a steal of software that is....

Burnsy

Meatball · 28 Aug 2006 at 16:27

This whole thread has gone kind of off-topic but oh well. I had to use my non-branded (GENUINE) Windows XP Home CD to reinstall XP on my friends PC and my mums laptop since no CDs were included. I obviously used their CD Keys (which were for the same software, XP Home OEM) but one key was Dell and the other from Packard Bell. They wont be affected by any of this? I had to activate them over the phone but the people over the phone didn't hesitate to give me a code. On my friends PC it was using an illegal copy of XP Pro so surely I've done a good thing by going back to XP Home which she had a license to use?

FrankJH · 28 Aug 2006 at 16:48

If its being sold with a piece of Dell equipment - then there is no issue at all and £53 for a Pro licence is a good deal imo and when registering just phone up MS and they will activate it with no problem

Burnsy2023 · 28 Aug 2006 at 23:26

FrankJH said:
If its being sold with a piece of Dell equipment

Why does this make any difference?

Burnsy

Burnsy2023 · 28 Aug 2006 at 23:34

Meatball said:
This whole thread has gone kind of off-topic but oh well. I had to use my non-branded (GENUINE) Windows XP Home CD to reinstall XP on my friends PC and my mums laptop since no CDs were included. I obviously used their CD Keys (which were for the same software, XP Home OEM) but one key was Dell and the other from Packard Bell. They wont be affected by any of this? I had to activate them over the phone but the people over the phone didn't hesitate to give me a code. On my friends PC it was using an illegal copy of XP Pro so surely I've done a good thing by going back to XP Home which she had a license to use?

If they have used their CD keys and its sucessfully activated, then the media is not an issue.

Your friend most likely didn'tneed the XP version so sticking to a legal version was a good call.

Burnsy

VeNT · 28 Aug 2006 at 23:35

from my experiance some software (windows, office, nero) thats bundled with PCs/Hardware WILL NOT WORK ON ANY OTHER HARDWARE.
I've seen this with windows on dell systems, it just won't work on any other, you get an error message about it not being the correct dell system or somthing.

also why bother buying an illigal licence? if you want to be legit then be legit!

FatRakoon · 29 Aug 2006 at 00:42

burnsy2023 said:
Loads of them...

Ok, so maybe I am incorrect on some things, and yes, the future may go a different path, and it quite probably will, but then again, it might not!

There are companies that buy from MS onsuch a massive scale, that MS are more often than not turning a blind eye to any suspect goings on, because they wont want to lose such massive sales.

Of course, with companies like Dell, they also wont want to lose the brown-nose deal they have with MS either, so on both sides, theydont realy want to rock the boat.

Its not just Dell of course, there are loads of them that do it, and there are plenty of these licences out there... Makes me wonder to be honest, because you never see anyone sellign HP or Fujitsu Licences do you? - they all seem to be Dell, and I just wonder why this is?

Anyway, I am going off track a bit again as usual...

You are probably right, sooner or later it will stop, but for now, its fine.

I myself have never had a problem installing Dell or HP licences on other systems, and when I have, I just tell them that I got the PC oroginally from ( I better not say where cos its another of those Magic Companies that get away with murder ) and I get it activated no quibble.

The only company that does give me some hell, is when I try to re-activate that licence using a standard XP CD... I have ways around them too, but its still a chore all the time.

Straying from the path again?

Hell, I will close it now then.