Re: XP OEM recovery disk
From: *Vanguard* (no-email_at_post-reply-in-newsgroup.invalid)
Date: 03/20/04
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Date: Sat, 20 Mar 2004 03:04:21 -0600
"Bruce Chambers" said in news:105mhdr7mimu5b4@corp.supernews.com:
<snip>
> 1) OEM versions must be sold with a piece of hardware (normally
> a motherboard or hard drive, if not an entire PC, although Microsoft
> has greatly relaxed the hardware criteria for WinXP)
You can buy Windows XP OEM with just a power cord although that might
count as a peripheral component (Microsoft says the OEM version must be
sold with non-peripheral equipment). Mine came with a SATA signal cable
(I could opt from about 3 choices) at a cost of $2.
> and are
> _permanently_ bound to the first PC on which they are installed. An
> OEM license, once installed, is not legally transferable to another
> computer under any circumstances. This is the main reason some people
> avoid OEM versions; if the PC dies or is otherwise disposed of (even
> stolen), you cannot re-use your OEM license on a new PC.
You can still replace the motherboard, add memory, change the CPU, add
hard drives, change the NIC and modem, change the video card, or
basically rebuild the entire computer. At most, all activation has
incurred to me is a telephone call to Microsoft. The license says that
instance of the OEM version of Windows stays with that computer, but
"that" computer can still be modified as desired. Microsoft isn't going
to severely lockup its product so it only works with a static snapshot
of the hardware at installation time since EVERYONE upgrades over time.
> The only
> legitimate way to transfer the ownership of an installed OEM license
> is to transfer ownership of the entire PC.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/en/advanced/help/default.asp?url=/windows2000/en/advanced/help/lic_legal_sell_software.htm
Example article only - Read your EULA; for Windows XP, its at
"C:\WINDOWS\system32\eula.txt"; do a search on "transfer". It says:
"You may permanently transfer all of your rights under this EULA only as
part of a permanent sale or transfer of the COMPUTER, provided you
retain no copies, if you transfer the SOFTWARE (including all component
parts, the media, any upgrades, this EULA and the Certificate of
Authenticity), and the recipient agrees to the terms of this EULA. If
the SOFTWARE is an upgrade, any transfer must also include all prior
versions of the SOFTWARE."
You must transfer ALL of your Windows versions down to a full version.
You might not have the manual anymore but you are required to provide
the CD installation or recovery media and all floppies to the buyer,
along with the COA sticker or document. You are NOT allowed to simply
sell off the computer with the software installed on the hard drive but
keep all the Windows install/recovery media. If you don't have the
Windows install/recovery media then you cannot sell the OS with the
computer. Selling a computer with a polluted drive that you were too
lazy to wipe is not selling off the software and can get you into
trouble due to piracy (if you do it enough to warrant a lawsuit).
Also, if the last installed or provided version of Windows is an
upgrade, you must provide install/restore media for all the prior
upgrades back to a full version. If you bought Windows 95 as a full
version, then an upgrade to Windows 98, and lastly an upgrade to Windows
XP, you must at least provide the Windows 95 media since that is the
full version upon which the entire upgrade lineage is based. You should
also provide, in this example, the Windows 98 media (I don't remember if
Windows XP will upgrade from Windows 95), or you can discard it, but
once you dispose of the Windows 95 full version to include it with the
Windows XP upgrade then you are not entitled to use the Windows 98
version. You no longer have the full version license on which that
upgrade is based as an upgrade.
OEM versions are never upgrades; they perform a full install. OEM
versions *are* full versions; i.e., you don't need to provide prior
versions if a legal OEM version is already installed or included.
http://www.microsoft.com/licensing
>
> 2) Microsoft provides no free support for OEM versions. If you
> have any problems that require outside assistance, your only recourse
> is to contact the manufacturer/builder of the PC or the vendor of the
> OEM license. This would include such issues as lost a Product Key or
> replacing damaged installation media. (Microsoft does make allowances
> for those instances when you can prove that the OEM has gone out of
> business.) This doesn't mean that you can't download patches and
> service packs from Microsoft -- just no free telephone or email
> support for problems with the OS.
See
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;en-us;prodoffer33a&sd=GN
for Windows XP support policies. You get all of 2, that's just 2,
incidents that you can report for free. So is it worth to pay the full
cost of the retail version to get just 2 times you can call them, or is
your money better spent to pay half the price and use that other money
on other utility software? The link notes that installation support is
unlimited and I would assume that means help with the product key (for
the retail version). With just 2 included trouble tickets, you'll
either end up holding onto their for dear life waiting for those
catastrophic events where no one else can help you (in which case, maybe
Microsoft can't help, either), or you'll chew through them immediately
and be left without any more support, anyway!
For OEM, you didn't pay for any support, not even those 2 incidents.
Make sure you don't lose your product key if it is an OEM version. Also
be sure to make a backup copy of the install/recovery CD.
<snip>
> 4) If the OEM CD was designed by a specific manufacturer, such as
> eMachines, Sony, Dell, Gateway, etc., it will most likely only install
> on the same brand/model of PC, as an additional anti-piracy feature.
This is the BIOS lock. The jobber has a customized OEM version that
looks for a specific signature string in the BIOS. That means you can't
take a DELL OEM CD and use it on a Sony machine (examples only).
> Further, such CDs are often severely customized to contain only the
> minimum of device drivers, and a lot of extra nonsense, that the ...
You might not even get a recovery CD. Some OEM vendors don't provide an
installa
tion CD nor do they provide a recovery CD. Instead they put the
recovery image on a hidden partition on the hard drive. If you replace
your hard drive, you lose that restore image. There might be a means of
copying the restore image onto CD but it is likely the image is larger
than the capacity of CD and simply spanning the image across multiple
CDs might not work. You need to find out from the OEM vendor how to get
their restore image off the hard drive so you can have it on removable
recovery media, like CDs or DVDs.
<snip>
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