Tracking a CD

G

Guest

Hi all,

If I have an oem Windows XP cd and I use it
to install on 5 different Dell computers but I
use the keyID from the stickers on each machine,
is there any information on the computers that
would point to the cd that I used during the
install?

Even when I use the stickers on the cases to
do the install, is that still legal? can they still
do the updates?

Method used in installation is make 2 partitions
on the hard drive (C and D), copy the i386 dir
to the D drive, install from there.

thanks,
charles....
 
D

D.Currie

charles said:
Hi all,

If I have an oem Windows XP cd and I use it
to install on 5 different Dell computers but I
use the keyID from the stickers on each machine,
is there any information on the computers that
would point to the cd that I used during the
install?

Even when I use the stickers on the cases to
do the install, is that still legal? can they still
do the updates?

Method used in installation is make 2 partitions
on the hard drive (C and D), copy the i386 dir
to the D drive, install from there.

thanks,
charles....

If you use a generic OEM cd with Dell's COA, you may run into activation
issues. Maybe not. But it's something to keep in mind. MS has tweaked their
activation methods, so while this used to be a slam-dunk, now some computer
users are needing to call MS to activate systems that have been
installed/repaired in this way.

Other than that, there's nothing that makes one generic OEM cd different
from any other. The cds provided by Dell and other big oems are customized
and possibly bios-locked, so installing them on a computer with a different
motherboard leads to a whole different set of problems.
 
G

Guest

charles said:
If you use a generic OEM cd with Dell's COA, you may run into activation
issues. Maybe not. But it's something to keep in mind. MS has tweaked their
activation methods, so while this used to be a slam-dunk, now some computer
users are needing to call MS to activate systems that have been
installed/repaired in this way.

Other than that, there's nothing that makes one generic OEM cd different
from any other. The cds provided by Dell and other big oems are customized
and possibly bios-locked, so installing them on a computer with a different
motherboard leads to a whole different set of problems.

Yes, I know. I had a friend who took a hard drive
out of an emachine that had XP Pro on it and tried
to put it in a system with an ECS motherboard.
The emachine had died. He still wanted to use
all the software that was on the hard drive in the
newly built clone he was parting together. The
new machine was squirly as all get out. In sysinfo
it thought it had 1G of ram when it only had 512M
and stuff like that. I told him it was cheap enough
to get a legal oem cd and install it but he ended
up using it the way he built it. Don't think he will
ever worry about updates.

later,
charles....
 

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