License Issue

[Jason]

Here at work we ordered 2 machines that came pre-loaded
with Windows 2K Pro... Immediately upon receiving the
machines we refomatted them and loaded a completely
different OS. We would still like to utilize these 2
Windows 2K Pro licenses that we paid for, but we are
unable to get the license keys supplied with these
machines to work on any installation of the operating
system! I've tried 4 different versions of the Win 2K
media and all had the same result, it says the license is
invalid. Any ideas on why this is happening??

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

You can use those OEM CDs *only* on the computers with which they
were initially purchased.

OEM versions must be sold with a piece of hardware (normally a
motherboard or hard drive, if not an entire PC, although Microsoft has
greatly relaxed the hardware criteria for WinXP) and are _permanently_
bound to the first PC on which they are installed. An OEM license,
once installed, is not legally transferable to another computer under
any circumstances. The only legitimate way to transfer the ownership
of an OEM license is to transfer ownership of the entire PC. This is
the best reason to avoid OEM versions; if the PC dies or is otherwise
disposed of (even stolen), you cannot re-use your OEM license on a new
PC.

Further, If the OEM CD was designed by a specific manufacturer,
such as Dell, Gateway, eMachines, Sony, HP, Compaq, etc., it will most
likely BIOS-locked, so that it only install on the same brand of PC,
as an additional anti-piracy feature. Further, such CDs are often
severely customized to contain only the minimum of device drivers, and
a lot of extra nonsense, that the manufacturer feels necessary for the
specific model of PC for which the CD was designed.


Bruce Chambers

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