Greetings --
According to the EULA, an OEM license may not be transferred from
one distinct PC to another PC. However, this most emphatically does
not prohibit one from repairing or upgrading the PC on which an OEM
license is installed.
Now, some people believe that the motherboard is the key component
that defines the "original computer," but the OEM EULA does not make
any such distinction. Others have said that one could successfully
argue that it's the PC's case that is the deciding component, as that
is where one is instructed to affix the OEM CoA label w/Product Key.
Again, the EULA does not specifically define any single component as
the computer.
Microsoft has, to date, been very careful _not_ publicly to define
when an incrementally upgraded computer ceases to be the original
computer. The closest I've ever seen a Microsoft employee come to
this definition is to tell the person making the inquiry to consult
the PC's manufacturer. As the OEM license's support is solely the
responsibility of said manufacturer, they should determine what sort
of hardware changes to allow before the warranty and support
agreements are voided. To paraphrase: An incrementally upgraded
computer ceases to be the original computer, as pertains to the OEM
EULA, only when the *OEM* says it's a different computer.
If you've built the PC yourself, and used a generic OEM WinXP CD,
I'd have to conclude that *you* are the OEM, and *you* get to decide
when you're going to stop supporting the system and its OS.
Bruce Chambers
--
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"I C" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>I bought a PC with Windows Me. I later bought a second hard drive and
> installed XP Pro OEM onto it. I have now built a new PC and I want
> to
> transfer that second hard drive to the new PC.
> I know that an OEM licence lives and dies with the computer in which
> it was first installed. Hence my question. What is a computer? Is it
> the hard drive? Or the motherboard? Or the tower? Or something else?
> I cannot believe that I can't move a hard drive with XP OEM into a
> new
> tower with different components. Is it acceptable to upgrade all the
> components inside the existing tower apart from the hard drive in
> question? Then it should also mean that I could move the hard drive
> to
> a new tower, which would contain whatever other components I want.
> If
> upgrading within the existing tower is allowed, but moving hard
> drive
> to a new tower is not allowed, then this would suggest that a
> computer
> is the tower, which is absurd. Or maybe upgrading even within the
> existing tower is forbidden, which is also absurd.
