OEM vs Full Version

[RichardG]

Due to a very long and unsuccessful attempt to get Office Enterprise to work
properly on a new ACER (VISTA Home Premium) computer that came c/w a
pre-installed trial version of Office 2007 as per Office technical support I
need to do a clean install of VISTA. My problem is that the only option I
have is to re-install the ACER factory load c/w the trial version and all of
the other useless stuff. I am contemplating buying either a full or oem
version of VISTA Home Premium, Format C, get rid of the hidden partition and
start from scratch. What is the difference between oem and full other than
the price.. Advice will be appreciated, this is my fourth computer but I have
never needed to do anything this drastic before.

 

[Mick Murphy]

The only real difference(besides price!) is that the OEM disk is tied to the
oringinal computer that it is installed on. In other words, if the computer
completely dies, that is the end of the OEM licence for it.
You can't transfer it to another computer.

Whereas with the full retail version, you can put it on as many computers as
you like, as long as it is installed on only one at a time.
In other words, put it on the 2nd; uninstall it from the 1st.

Also, with the OEM licence, you can not get the 64bit version, if you have
the 32bit version from microsoft for the cost of postage(approx $10), which
you can do with full, retail version.

Hope it helps.

 

[RichardG]

Mick

Thank you for the answer. I tend to keep my computers long past the shelf
life of the os so the OEM option is probably the best bet. If I decide to go
this route I will likley be back to seek some advice on how to do this , in
particular how to deal with the hidden partion that has a copy of the factory
load on it.

 

[Mick Murphy]

Richard, that is easy enough to do.
During vista install, and before formatting, you are given the opportunity
to delete existing partitions, and go back to an unpartionitioned drive.
Then you select all that space to formatt.

 

[RichardG]

Mick

I actually have 3 partitions c , d and hidden. d I use for backups. I would
like to retain d with my data on it. I will also have my important stuff
backed up off computer, will I have this option ? Thanks for the advice, this
is a process I havent done before.

 

[Mick Murphy]

You will be able to do this through disk management.

When you are ready to do it, just repost here with a Heading like: "Disk
Management working on 3 partitions????"

See you again here soon.

 

[DL]

Forgive me but are you unable to uninstall the trial version of Office &
other preinstalled stuff?
There is an MS kb article on manual uninstallation if Add/Remove fails
Once your sys is clean simply create an Image & store that safely

 

[John Barnes]

Not a problem to most, but be aware that with OEM Microsoft provides no
support (except paid and updates)

 

[RichardG]

Tried and faild , Office Teck support have been loged onto my computer 3
times and they could not solve the problem.

Richard

 

[RichardG]

I did have to re-install VISTA to get Office Enterprise to work, I think that
it may have been VISTA that was corrupted ( although all my non MS Aps worked
) possibly from the ACER factory load. ACER does not and will not provide the
option of installing the OS only. I ended up buying a full version of VISTA
Home Priemum through my employers home purchase program and doing a clean
install. Since doing that Office is installed and working properly and I have
noticed that the whole system seems to have improved. The cost of replacing
an OS that I already had, that should not have been nessessary is probably
money well spent, I was able to salvage a decent computer from a lousey
factory load.

I still have the hidden partition and would like to get rid of it.

Richard

 

[John Barnes]

You would need to do any merge with another partition program. Delete and
add freespace would work in Vista