question about installing second partition and activation

[richk]

I have a machine that came with Vista Ultimate 32-bit pre-installed.
(IBM/Lenovo Thinkpad) I have recovery disks that will install a factory
image, rather than a "real" vista disk, although I do have vista ultimate
disks from another machine (desktop). The laptop has a vista ultimate COA
on the bottom. I would like to install a second vista ultimate partition
onto the thinkpad, because I need to be able to run an OS that is really
stripped-down (no internet, anti-virus, etc) because I occasionally need to
run applications that are adversely affected by any background tasks. I
assume that because vista ultimate is licensed on the machine, there isn't a
problem running 2 copies. Can I just install from my desktop disks and
activate using the laptop's COA? I assume I would need to call and talk to
a human being. True?

Thanks in advance

Rich

 

[Dominic Payer]

A Windows licence is for one copy only on one machine. Installing a
second copy is not legal, even on the same machine.

Have you considered running the applications with high priority and
creating a user account with limited access to the processes and
programs which might interfere?

 

[Saucy]

I think Dominic's suggestion about "High Priority" is a good one:

Right-click on the Taskbar and select "Start Task Manager" > under the
"Application tab" right click on the application you want to have better
performance and select "Go to Process" > you will be delivered to the
appropriate process under the Processes tab > right-click > Set Priority

select "High" > then affirm any dialogue boxes and click any OKs etc. etc

etc.

You can try "Realtime", but I don't recommend it because selecting this can
sometimes cause problems (unresponsiveness etc.) as the single process can
receive inordinate amounts of dedication.

As for setting up a dualboot (multiboot) .. well .. not ideal .. you will
find it inconvenient etc. etc. .. PITA switching out of one operating system
to boot into the other etc. etc.

One thing you might consider too (if you haven't already done so) is add RAM
to the laptop. If you laptop has only 1 GB RAM say, buy some RAM (it's
relatively inexpensive these days) and bounce your system up to two or four
GB RAM. Vista is a bit of a RAM hog and you will notice quite a performance
boost going from one to two or more GBs RAM. One GB RAM is not enough for
Vista.

Saucy

 

[Dusko Savatovic]

Hi richk,

I would go with Lenovo recovery disks.
Licenses need to match the software "SKU" (or type).
For example:
Retail Software (box) = Retail License
OEM Software (Lenovo)= OEM License

You cannot activate, for example, Retail Software with OEM License key and
vice versa.

IOW, I'm not sure that you will be able to activate installation made from
your desktop disks with a key on yor COA on your laptop.

But you should have no problem installing and activating two instances of
Vista supplied by Lenovo on your laptop computer.