Upgrade install using OEM disc or license?

S

Slickwilly

Ok Heres the deal- My company has a 30-user volume license for Windows XP and
Vista. I've used most of the licenses for upgrading Windows 2000 machines to
Windows XP. I recently discovered that we have a number of computers that
shipped with Windows XP but were wiped clean and had Windows 2000 installed
on them.

I still have machines that need uprgraded to Windows XP but I want to use
the OEM license on them to save the volume licenses for Vista upgrades.

Is there any way to do an upgrade install with OEM disc or license?
 
S

Slickwilly

Yes I know that.... but apparently there is a way to change the license after
an install. I think I can use the volume license disk to do the upgrade
install, and then change the license afterwards to the OEM license.

There is also a method involving changing the numbers in the setupp.ini file
so you can use an OEM license on a volume license disk but this does not work.
 
S

smlunatick

Yes I know that.... but apparently there is a way to change the license after
an install. I think I can use the volume license disk to do the upgrade
install, and then change the license afterwards to the OEM license.

There is also a method involving changing the numbers in the setupp.ini file
so you can use an OEM license on a volume license disk but this does not work.






- Show quoted text -
Click to expand...

You can not use an OEM license with VLA version of XP. There is a
special "control" file which will "tell" XP which type of XP license
is to be used.
 
L

LVTravel

While what you want to do, in theory should work, the problem is that the
OEM versions of XP that came on the original machines that were downgraded
to 2000 still has the original XP OEM license tied to them. What you would
have to do is this:

Take the 2000 machine that had an original OEM XP that was later upgraded to
the volume license of XP on it and rebuild it with the OEM XP key on the
bottom of the machine using the OEM XP CD that you should have. Use that
volume license released by this method to upgrade the one that didn't come
with XP originally.

Will take a lot of backup and restoring of programs and files but it will
save the volume licenses for the desired purpose.
 
S

Slickwilly

LVTravel said:
Will take a lot of backup and restoring of programs and files but it will
save the volume licenses for the desired purpose.
Click to expand...

I was trying to avoid doing that but it looks like it's the only solution.
The computers have a lot of third party software... plus I would have to do
the rebuilds after work hours... I'm not looking forward to doing that!
 
L

LVTravel

Slickwilly said:
I was trying to avoid doing that but it looks like it's the only solution.
The computers have a lot of third party software... plus I would have to
do
the rebuilds after work hours... I'm not looking forward to doing that!
Click to expand...

Really a shame that it is the only way to "recover" the licenses from the
Volume Licensing arrangement. Thank goodness that I wasn't responsible for
the same issue that occurred at my place of business because of an IT guy
that just didn't care about money or time. When the money dried up for new
volume licenses, he had to do to just about 50 Dell machines what you are
getting ready to do.
 

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