Licensing question

  • Thread starter Michael A. Covington
  • Start date
M

Michael A. Covington

Most people with licensing questions have too few Windows licenses; I may
have too many :)

I had 2 computers, A and B. Computer A had an OEM license for XP Home.
Computer B had a bought license for XP Home (actually the latest in a series
of upgrades bought from Microsoft, going all the way back to Windows 95;
that was an OLD but well-loved computer!).

I made one computer out of two. I duplicated B's boot disk using Seagate's
disk copy utility, moved B's new boot disk into A and did a repair
installation of Windows XP Home from B's install CD (since A had no install
CD).

Then I reassembled computer B with its old boot disk. I don't know if I'll
actually keep this computer in use or not.

Now I have 2 computers that both have valid XP Home licenses, but both were
installed from the same CD (rather than A still having its OEM installation
on it).

Clearly, I have the right number of valid licenses, but will Microsoft's
online software ever *think* that I don't?

Obviously, if I take machine B out of service, it will become a moot point.
 
R

Ron Martell

Michael A. Covington said:
Most people with licensing questions have too few Windows licenses; I may
have too many :)

I had 2 computers, A and B. Computer A had an OEM license for XP Home.
Computer B had a bought license for XP Home (actually the latest in a series
of upgrades bought from Microsoft, going all the way back to Windows 95;
that was an OLD but well-loved computer!).

I made one computer out of two. I duplicated B's boot disk using Seagate's
disk copy utility, moved B's new boot disk into A and did a repair
installation of Windows XP Home from B's install CD (since A had no install
CD).

Then I reassembled computer B with its old boot disk. I don't know if I'll
actually keep this computer in use or not.

Now I have 2 computers that both have valid XP Home licenses, but both were
installed from the same CD (rather than A still having its OEM installation
on it).

Clearly, I have the right number of valid licenses, but will Microsoft's
online software ever *think* that I don't?

Obviously, if I take machine B out of service, it will become a moot point.


The license for the OEM version of Windows XP is permanently locked to
the first computer that it was installed on (= Computer A) and cannot
be transferred to another computer under any circumstances.

The license for your retail upgrade version of Windows XP is
transferrable from computer to computer to computer as you see fit.
However the license terms require you to ensure that it is never
installed on more than one computer at any time.

When you did the Repair Install of Windows XP on computer A using the
Windows XP updgrade CD and product key you effectively transferred
that license from computer B to computer A, and the licensing
conditions required that you remove that license from computer B.

By using the same Retail Upgrade license on two computers you are not
complying with the terms of your license.

Your OEM license for Windows XP is currently unused. However it is
only valid if it is installed on computer A.

What happened to the original hard drive from computer A? Could you
not clone that disk to a new larger hard drive if you needed more
space?

Hope this clarifies the situation.

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."
 
M

Michael A. Covington

The license for the OEM version of Windows XP is permanently locked to
the first computer that it was installed on (= Computer A) and cannot
be transferred to another computer under any circumstances.

The license for your retail upgrade version of Windows XP is
transferrable from computer to computer to computer as you see fit.
However the license terms require you to ensure that it is never
installed on more than one computer at any time.

When you did the Repair Install of Windows XP on computer A using the
Windows XP updgrade CD and product key you effectively transferred
that license from computer B to computer A, and the licensing
conditions required that you remove that license from computer B.

By using the same Retail Upgrade license on two computers you are not
complying with the terms of your license.

Understood, hence my question. Computer B is not actually in use now and
may never be, in which case the problem goes away.
What happened to the original hard drive from computer A? Could you
not clone that disk to a new larger hard drive if you needed more
space?

I wanted to clone the disk from B and move it into A in order to preserve a
lot of very complex installed software, some of which has strange
requirements and goes back several years. These include a typesetting
system and some unusual graphics applications, not just ordinary commercial
software.
Hope this clarifies the situation.

It clarifies exactly why I posted the question :)
 
M

Michael A. Covington

Hope this clarifies the situation.
It clarifies exactly why I posted the question :)

In fact, let me clarify the question further. Is there a way to tell
Machine B that it is running Windows XP under its own OEM license (which has
never left it) rather than the license pertaining to the CD it was installed
from?

The underlying idea is that 2 licenses of Windows XP Home ought to be
sufficient to run Windows XP Home on 2 computers.
 
M

Michael A. Covington

Michael A. Covington said:
In fact, let me clarify the question further. Is there a way to tell
Machine B that it is running Windows XP under its own OEM license (which
has never left it) rather than the license pertaining to the CD it was
installed from?

I have a feeling the answer might be related to this:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/deploy/oempreac.mspx

But I'm not quite sure how to proceed. The machine with the OEM license now
has a boot disk that was transplanted into it from the machine that had the
bought license.
 
L

Larry Samuels

What brand is the OEM that you don't have a cd for?
There is a good chance you can contact the manufacturer and get a
replacement cd,then do a repair install with the correct cd and key. That
would free up the upgrade for computer b.


--
Larry Samuels Associate Expert
MS-MVP (2001-2005)
Unofficial FAQ for Windows Server 2003 at
http://pelos.us/SERVER.htm
Expert Zone-
 
M

Michael A. Covington

Larry Samuels said:
What brand is the OEM that you don't have a cd for?
There is a good chance you can contact the manufacturer and get a
replacement cd,then do a repair install with the correct cd and key. That
would free up the upgrade for computer b.

It's eMachines. They don't give a Windows disk, only a "restore disk" which
I have, and which I *presume* can't be used for a Windows repair install --
the only thing it can do is wipe and reinstall the entire hard disk to its
original state. Is that indeed how "restore" disks work?

By the way, in earlier messages I may have mixed up machine A and B. But
what you say makes sense.
 
L

Larry Samuels

Ugh--eMachines recovery cds cannot do a repair install.

If you know someone with a generic OEM XP home disk(not name brand) you
could perform a repair install with their disk using the product key from
the eMachines.
You will have to call for activation because activation over the internet
will fail. Simply explain you had to do a repair install with a generic OEM
cd and they will activate it for you.


--
Larry Samuels Associate Expert
MS-MVP (2001-2005)
Unofficial FAQ for Windows Server 2003 at
http://pelos.us/SERVER.htm
Expert Zone-
 
R

Ron Martell

Michael A. Covington said:
In fact, let me clarify the question further. Is there a way to tell
Machine B that it is running Windows XP under its own OEM license (which has
never left it) rather than the license pertaining to the CD it was installed
from?

The underlying idea is that 2 licenses of Windows XP Home ought to be
sufficient to run Windows XP Home on 2 computers.

Unfortunately no. The type of license is embedded into the
installation CD software so when you did the Repair Install you
effectively replaced the OEM identifiers with the Retail Upgrade
indentifiers.

You cannot change the product key to the OEM either, because the
product keys are coded so as to work only with a specific version
(OEM, Retail Upgrade, Volume License, etc) of Windows XP.

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."
 
G

Guest

Hello Michael. I have a question for. Yesterday I received 5 laptops all in
need of repair. The laptop I will talk about is an IBM T30 notebook P4 1.9
ghz. It has a
an IBM Win XP licence for 1 - 2 cpu can you please tell me what cd I should be
using with this licence. I ran into a simalar situation on a Dell desktop.
Is there
a special cd. Using XP Home , Corperate or the XP Pro cd will not let me key
in
the product key on it. It will say invallid key try again.
Can You help me with this. My email is (e-mail address removed)
Thank You
Gary Harty
 
M

Michael A. Covington

Assuming you have the keys (on a sticker on each computer), see the recent
message on "Reinstall OEM with different media."
 
R

Ron Martell

Gary said:
Hello Michael. I have a question for. Yesterday I received 5 laptops all in
need of repair. The laptop I will talk about is an IBM T30 notebook P4 1.9
ghz. It has a
an IBM Win XP licence for 1 - 2 cpu can you please tell me what cd I should be
using with this licence.

That license is for a single computer which may contain either one or
two CPUs installed onto the same motherboard.

You need the actual IBM installation CD for that specific laptop model
because of the proprietary hardware components in the laptop which
require drivers that are not found on the generic OEM installation
CDs.

If a "nuke and pave" approach is acceptable then you should be able to
access the IBM System Recovery partition in the hard drive by pressing
F11 during the Power On Self Test. That will overwrite the existing
operating system partition with the factory image from the recovery
partition. All installed programs, user data files, etc. will be
wiped out.

I ran into a simalar situation on a Dell desktop.
Is there
a special cd. Using XP Home , Corperate or the XP Pro cd will not let me key
in
the product key on it. It will say invallid key try again.


Product Keys for Windows XP are uniquely coded so as to identify:
- Edition (Home, Pro, Tablet PC, Media Center)
- Version (OEM, Retail Upgrade, Retail Full Install, Volume License,
etc.)
- Language

If the product key used does not match the CD in all 3 of these
aspects then the key will be rejected.

Hope this explains the situation.

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."
 

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