exchanging an OEM CD for a full windows XP CD

[Jeff Malka]

My Toshiba laptop came with pre-installed XP Home and a recovery CD which, I
discovered, is not the full XP Home CD, lacking several of the OS files and
only permitting a return to the "pre-installed" state instead of XP
recovery.

Is there a way to exchange this stunted OEM version for a full XP Home CD?
I am essentially a registered owner of XP home that was pre-installed on my
PC.

Thanks.

 

[Crusty \(-: Old B@stard :-\)]

If your OEM will not do it for you, your only choice is to purchase it.

 

[Willit]

No.....lol on a exchange. You can buy a full OEM for $80.00
You can buy a retail also , but the OEM would let replace
the files you need. or Get a copy from a friend and use
your key as long as the versions were the same.

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi Jeff,

You are a registered owner of the OEM version of WinXP that came installed
with your system. That is their license to sell you a modified version of
WinXP. You cannot exchange this for a retail version, you would need to
purchase that separately. For a price, your OEM might send you a disk
containing the rest of the value-add programs. Please note also that the
retail version may not contain needed drivers for your system.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Win9x

Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone

 

[Jeff Malka]

You are a registered owner of the OEM version of WinXP that came installed

with your system. That is their license to sell you a modified version of
WinXP. You cannot exchange this for a retail version, you would need to
purchase that separately. For a price, your OEM might send you a disk
containing the rest of the value-add programs.

That is terrible and also deceptive advertising. When they sold me the
Toshiba laptop it was advertised as containing "Microsoft XP Home". It did
not say a "subset" or modified version of Windows XP Home!

When I click on "My Computer" properties, it says
"System: Microsoft Windows XP, Home Edition, Version 2002, Service pack 1".
Although the registration number includes OEM in it, the operating system is
not listed as being anything other than
"Microsoft Windows XP, Home Edition, Version 2002, Service pack 1".

How can they get away with that? How is that not false advertising? Why does
Microsoft itself not make noise since they are selling a different product
under the MS registered name?

It's like buying a PC that advertises it has a genuine Intel Pentium 4
processor only to find it is not really a Pentium 4 but one we modified that
runs less fast and less well; or a 120 GB hard drive where we removed the
last 20 GB because we did not think you needed it..

This is terrible. Besides what does Toshiba gain by doing this - other than
antagonizing its buyers?

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi Jeff,

Toshiba is able to purchase and distribute the Windows Operating System at a
lower cost than retail with their systems. They have the option of including
the extras, they chose not to. Microsoft sells them the license to
distribute with the addtional caveat that they (Toshiba) is solely
responsible for support for the Operating System. They cut costs by
eliminating the extras. You, as the buyer, get the full Operating System
minus the extras, that's how they get away with it.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Win9x

Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone

 

[CS]

My Toshiba laptop came with pre-installed XP Home and a recovery CD which, I
discovered, is not the full XP Home CD, lacking several of the OS files and
only permitting a return to the "pre-installed" state instead of XP
recovery.

Is there a way to exchange this stunted OEM version for a full XP Home CD?
I am essentially a registered owner of XP home that was pre-installed on my
PC.

Thanks.

Hello Jeff:

My new Toshiba notebook came with two additional CDs besides the
recovery CD for the OS. One of the CDs had all the programs that are
pre-installed (Works, Quicken, DVD, CD Burner software, etc) and the
other contains a folder called Value Add. The Value Add folder has
many of the same extras as is found on the retail copy of XP Home. (I
also own a retail copy of home for my desktop) Didn't your Toshiba
come with the same set of CDs?

BTW, with the three disk set you can recover everything at once (same
state as the machine left the factory), or selectively recover
programs and drivers. Check your documentation as your Toshiba may
be the same.

 

[Ken Blake]

In

My Toshiba laptop came with pre-installed XP Home and a recovery CD
which, I discovered, is not the full XP Home CD, lacking several of
the OS files and only permitting a return to the "pre-installed"
state instead of XP recovery.

Is there a way to exchange this stunted OEM version for a full XP
Home CD? I am essentially a registered owner of XP home that was
pre-installed on my PC.

Your only recourse possible is with the seller. You can try them,
but I'm not optimistic that you'll succeed. It's caveat emptor,
I'm afraid, and you should have found out what you were buying
before you bought it.

If you want a genuine retail CD, you'll probably have to buy one.