Vista OEM Activation issue. [new vista] [hard drives]
Q: Should I buy the new Microsoft Vista Premium OEM 32-bit OS, what is the deal to activate the OS. How about switching motherboards, hard drives, etc. in the future. How many times will the system activate? What can I change? What is not allowed by Microsoft regarding activation and use? Can someone please explain how it works? Many thanks.
Best Answer: Yes you should be able to do so. When you have the legal and genuine key, you can install vista home premium with any CD. Instead of downloading vista from the internet, I would borrow a CD of a friend or anybody you know with also vista home premium
You pay for the key and not for the CD.
I would not trust he one you downloaded. Of course you can try. When the instalation goes well till the end, great, now you can activate your vista.
Re:well this is the origonal intention of the thread creator- to find out exactly what the differences are.
by going from that article though, it specifically states the retail version CANNOT be transferred as many times as you like. it is, in fact, exactly the same as the oem version- there are no differences in activation between the two. with retail, you are paying for the microsoft support and printed manual. thats about it. i would sure like to confirm that article as true, because it does not state the name of the 'spokeswoman' who said all of that.
Re:Originally posted by: guy
THANKS! now there is some substance. apparently, its MORE lenient then xp was with changing hardware, and from what that article says, the OEM version and the RETAIL version are EXACTLY the same as far as activation goes? in fact, the biggest loss with the OEM is the ms support? thats it? it said with the OEM version, the installer is required to give the end user support, while the retail vista comes with microsoft support. so that tells me there is no reason to buy retail! $120 vista premium oem is looking mighty good now.
From what I read else where, if you have OEM and do change out your motherboard more than twice (for example: original-AMD X2, then new Core 2 Duo, finally AMD NextGen) Vista won't work and have to get a new OEM serial. Retail version you can do all that without problems. It also makes me wonder if Vista OEM will behave like my XP OEM, 6 months down the when after a fresh install, I upgraded again (fresh install again)and activation was all clear and didn't complain, seems to have gotten "cleaned out"….
Re:THANKS! now there is some substance. apparently, its MORE lenient then xp was with changing hardware, and from what that article says, the OEM version and the RETAIL version are EXACTLY the same as far as activation goes? in fact, the biggest loss with the OEM is the ms support? thats it? it said with the OEM version, the installer is required to give the end user support, while the retail vista comes with microsoft support. so that tells me there is no reason to buy retail! $120 vista premium oem is looking mighty good now.
Re:http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2087792,00.asp
Re:<quote>It doesn't answer everything he wants 100% positive I agree</quote>
you still question the reason i joined? 
Re:2. INSTALLATION AND USE RIGHTS. Before you use the software under a license, you must
assign that license to one device (physical hardware system). That device is the ?licensed device.?
A hardware partition or blade is considered to be a separate device.
a. Licensed Device. You may install one copy of the software on the licensed device. You may
use the software on up to two processors on that device at one time. Except as provided in the
Storage and Network Use (Ultimate edition) sections below, you may not use the software on any
other device.
It doesn't answer everything he wants 100% positive I agree, but there's enough information there to know that the limitation is one machine. It also says near the bottom that you're allowed to make a single copy of the disk for backup and reinstallation only. Since it doesn't mention anything about a total reinstalls than that means there's no limit on that ONE machine. This is how XP worked… so hard drives/cdrom/vid cards can be changed and the OS won't know the diff. If the mother board is changed than it requires a reactivation of the OS but it's allowed
Re:[qutoe]What about switching out motherboards, hard drives, etc. in the future[/quote]
http://download.microsoft.com/documents…6c019b-fa71-4fc9-a51d-a0621bddb153.pdf (http://download.microsoft.com/documents/useterms/Windows%20Vista_Home%20Premium_English_d16c019b-fa71-4fc9-a51d-a0621bddb153.pdf)
please read his question again, then read the link provided and show me where it says anything about an OEM license or changing out harddrives, motherboards and the like. thank you, im sorry for being an idiot
Re:Originally posted by: guy
that does not answer his question in any way
I hope you didn't join solely to make that remark. For one… a big waste of time on your part because if you bothered to read it DOES answer his question.
It acts the same way XP did… No more than one machine can run the OS at the same time.
Re:that does not answer his question in any way
Re:http://www.microsoft.com/about/legal/useterms/default.aspx
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Tags: hard drives, new vista