Windoes XP Pro - OEM or retail version?

Dr.Rock

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Hi,

I've seen an OEM copy of Windows XP Professional on sale at www.ebuyerco.uk at this .web link.

The thing is, it costs only 100 English Pounds (including VAT + delivery), whereas the full retail version costs around 260 Pounds.

Does anyone know the difference between the OEM and retail version? I know the retail version has 2 extra CD's. Does anyone know what's in those CD's, are they anything important? Am I missing out on anything if I get the OEM version? They say I lose out on the support from Microsoft, but will I still be entitled to the updates on the Microsoft website?

Thanks
 
Go OEM.. theres no difference..(and whatever is on the extra cd's will not be worth £160.

The OEM versions are only meant to be sold with new PC's hence some of the web retailers will only let you buy it with a major bit of hardware (hd, processor etc) to fulfill the license requirements. End of the day its the same OS.. which you will be able to get all the normal updates from the web once its installed.

hth

matt
 
To be more accurate, all reputable dealers will insist on selling an OEM copy with an item of "non-peripheral hardware". This includes hard disks, motherboards, cpus and ram. An OEM license is not transferable to another PC, and therefore dies with that machine.

If your invoice for OEM windows XP shows no other items bought at the same time, then technically your license isn't worth the paper it's written on.

If a dealer will sell you a license on it's own, they are, practically by definition, "dodgy", so I'd watch your step if you do decide to go down that route.
 
Hi Yandros,

The contents of your message is certainly something to be concerned about. The popularity of Ebuyer makes them a reputable supplier, so I'm surprised they haven't realised they're doing something they shouldn't be doing.
 
From ebuyers website, in the product details on XP Home OEM...


"Licensing Information: You receive a Certificate of Authenticity (COA) and a CD containing the program on it. This is a legal OEM version of Windows licensed by Microsoft to be sold with any "non-peripheral hardware component" and is bundled as such."


It doesn't say that in the XP Pro details, but I think that's probably just an oversight.

If you're worried, just treat your PC to a 50 quid hard disk upgrade or a stick of RAM, and you'll be legal.
 
http://www.simply.co.uk sell the OEM versions of XP aswell (advertised in their pc magazine addverts but not on the website for some reason)

They state that they have to be bought along with "an internal component that is essential to the running of your PC" as this licence type is only available if you building or upgrading a PC.

They give an example of buying XP home with just a cpu fan which are very cheap and wont add much to the price.

They have XP Home OEM for £67.99inc vat, and Pro OEM for £118.00inc.vat.

I phoned up and ordered XP Home OEM (along with a hard drive) from them and was very happy with the service, I'm sure you could do the same with ebuyer, just depends on who you prefer I suppose (delivery prices were a factor for me as I live in N.Ireland and most suppliers add on a hefty surcharge :mad: )

Regards,
Iain.
 
Originally posted by Yandros
To be more accurate, all reputable dealers will insist on selling an OEM copy with an item of "non-peripheral hardware". This includes hard disks, motherboards, cpus and ram. An OEM license is not transferable to another PC, and therefore dies with that machine.

If your invoice for OEM windows XP shows no other items bought at the same time, then technically your license isn't worth the paper it's written on.

If a dealer will sell you a license on it's own, they are, practically by definition, "dodgy", so I'd watch your step if you do decide to go down that route.

It would be interesting to hear at what point MS would claim you are trying to use the same OEM copy of their OS on a different machine..e.g.
"
But this *is* the same PC. It's just had 3 new motherboards, 4 memory upgrades, 3 CPU's, 3 soundcards, 4 PSU's, 3 hard drives, 1 new case and 4 graphics cards....oh yes, and the original network card :D

In all seriousness though I'm not sure MS would find it particularly easy to police this condition of the OEM licence if you consider that they'd have to maintain a database capable of storing and searching not just all the original installations of the OEM copies of XP (remember that most ready built machines are supplied with OEM versions) but also everytime a major component like the hard drive or motherboard is changed then it's reinstalled again with slightly different installation data being registered with that product key...that's going to be a pretty hefty database to sift through and very time consuming.

Just my 2p worth :)
 
also everytime a major component like the hard drive or motherboard is changed then it's reinstalled again with slightly different installation data being registered with that product key...that's going to be a pretty hefty database to sift through and very time consuming.
I'm not sure of all the in's and out's, but I do know that configuration changes sometimes require product re-activation, and that sometimes, this has to be done by phone, and can't be done via the internet. This suggests to me that they can, and do, maintain (and perhaps monitor) this kind of information in some way or another. With respect to activations, I guess they probably only examine the most suspicious cases, at the moment. But of course, they could change this policy at any time. This is all just speculation, of course.

But I'm sure MS have no interest in giving legitimate users a hard time for changing components, but equally, want to protect their own interests.
 

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