VISTA OEM and Activation

[Oldsarge]

With an OEM copy you can change out components and reinstall as many times
as you want on the same computer. Whether it will activate online every
time, I don't know. I believe after a certain number of activations or
maybe a certain number within a certain time period, then it's phone
activation.

I have not seen the Vista OEM EULA. I believe that replacing a
motherboard that has died is fine. What the situation is for upgrading a
motherboard, I don't know.

I always use OEM versions of Windows and have never ever had a problem in
reactivating the product. I've changed out motherboards, drives,
processors, and other perhiperals without any problem. When I get the too
many activations message, I make the toll free call to India and just tell
them "no, I don't have the software running on more than one system".
That's it, and that's all they want to know, AND it's what Microsoft's EULA
states in so many words. You cannot run the same copy of the OS on more than
one computer at a time. OEM versions are supposed to be for people that
make systems for others and want to provide them with an OS.
However, there is no way to police this and is probably one reason why
Microsoft has now allowed OEM versions of Vista to be sold without
accompanying hardware. That policy was a joke anyway. I have also never
found any difference between the retail version and OEM except for the fact
the OEM version is always the full version and not the upgrade.

I read an article that stated when you activate Windows or Vista, some of
your machine data is sent to Microsoft and filed with your activation code.
This data consists of your processor serial number, hard drive(s) id, and a
few other details about your system. This is what Microsoft uses to
determine if you are using the software on more than one machine at a time.
You can activate any version of Vista or Windows on any machine at any time
as long as it's the only machine running the OS.

If what I am stating is to be debated, then Microsoft should maybe tighten
up some more.

At least Adobe is kind enough to allow you to install one copy of their
software on two machines, which makes it cheaper and easier to use their
software on a notebook in addition to a desktop. Why Microsoft hasn't
adopted this policy, I don't know, except to say money and greed is their
reason.

Off my Redmond soapbox for now.

 

[Jeff]

Oldsarge:

Does that mean if one installs Vista Retail and does tons of reinstalls on
the same box that too many activations message will come up too?

Jeff

 

[Dale]

OEM versions are supposed to be for people that make systems for others
and want to provide them with an OS.
However, there is no way to police this and is probably one reason why
Microsoft has now allowed OEM versions of Vista to be sold without
accompanying hardware.

There's nothing in the OEM agreements on the package or the EULA that says
it is supposed to be for people that make systems for others and want to
provide them with an OS. It says it has to be installed on new hardware.
It says that by installing that software you agree to provide support for
it. Those are the highlights.

The definition of new hardware has always been pretty loose, even by
Microsoft. The new hardware requirement was not eliminated though, only the
requirement that companies like NewEgg had to enforce that policy. It
becomes between you and Microsoft, that's all.

<snip>

 

[Dale]

No one can say for sure. Vista activation is about as unsettled as the
Universe itself. I would bet, though, that eventually the
too-many-activations message will come up. So what. Call India and get it
fixed.

Dale

 

[Guest]

I bought the OEM of Home Premium and had some trouble with drivers and had to
reinstall 3 times before I found the solution. And I found that you can
activate automatically online twice, then you have to call. It took me 8 min.
and was quite painless. My guess is you'll be able to do this as much as you
want, but online's out of the question after the second go.

 

[Dale]

Even Microsoft has long recommended not activating software that you're
going to re-install soon. I guess your experience suggests that we need to
think seriously about that.

If I can remember to ignore all the reminders to activate, I'm going to try
to wait 120 days before activating any future installations - just to be
safe, or just to make my life easier.

Dale

 

[=?iso-8859-1?B?RGFuaWVsIEP0dOk=?=]

I have the FULL retail version, full full full version. It still insists on
a 2nd activation key after you do the first install and want to reinstall.
How do we get around this ?

Dan
Sudbury, Canada

 

[Dale]

What a screwed up mess Vista activation is turning out to be! Maybe it is
time to consider a Mac.

I have a Solaris 10 x86 server I keep trying to like but the Sun Java
Desktop basically sucks. I have a spare drive I was going to pull the
Solaris loaded drives and install Ubuntu. I think I will. I'll let you
know how it goes in an hour or two.

Dale

 

[Dale]

Still installing... Vista installed much faster than Ubuntu is installing.

Dale

 

[Dale]

Now it is downloading 175 MB in patches and updates.

Dale

 

[Rock]

I have the FULL retail version, full full full version. It still insists
on a 2nd activation key after you do the first install and want to
reinstall. How do we get around this ?

I'm not sure I know what you mean that it's asking for a "2nd activation
key". If it's asking to activate and won't do it through the internet then
you need to phone for activation. Next time after it's activated make an
image of the installation and archive that. If for some reason you need to
reinstall, restore that image instead.

 

[Richard Urban]

Wait! A new install of Ubuntu (I assume 6.10 - the latest) and you already
need 175 meg of patches?

<grin>

I went through the same thing, thinking while doing it how some people post
in the Windows XP groups complaining about the monthly Microsoft patches.

Ubuntu beat Window XP in the shear volume of patches in the first week after
the latest edition was placed on the web for download.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[Dale]

I got the install done and Ubuntu running. The install was easy enough.
There were errors in the progress bar as it didn't keep up and bounced up
and down a few times - no big deal. It was 6.10. Now I have a pretty
orange Gnome desktop that is trying to imitate, of all things, a Windows
desktop. Weird.

It has Open Office and Gnome, a basic media player, and FireFox.... I have
to figure out how to get an anti-virus on it and a proxy server/firewall.

I wouldn't want to use it for every day use. It's not snappy or responsive
like we have come to expect from Windows. I am counting on it to tell me
every time Vista, or any other Microsoft product, phones home - as soon as I
figure out how to get a proxy server on it, that is.

But... as some have said. It was free. It works. The install was easy.
It discovered every piece of my hardware - which isn't much. If a person
really wanted to use Linux, this may be the one. I've only done about half
a dozen Linux installs but of those, this was the easiest and smoothest by
far.

And I didn't have to activate it.


Dale

 

[Nina DiBoy]

Wait! A new install of Ubuntu (I assume 6.10 - the latest) and you
already need 175 meg of patches?

<grin>

I went through the same thing, thinking while doing it how some people
post in the Windows XP groups complaining about the monthly Microsoft
patches.

Ubuntu beat Window XP in the shear volume of patches in the first week
after the latest edition was placed on the web for download.

Oh, so what you are saying is that creators of Ubuntu do a better and
higher quality job with patching than MS does. Makes sense.

--
Priceless quotes in m.p.w.vista.general group:
http://protectfreedom.tripod.com/kick.html

Most recent idiotic quote added to KICK (Klassic Idiotic Caption Kooks):
"Nope. Just CLUELESS CUNTS LIKE YOU too stupid to work it out. Thank
the bittorent brigade."

"Good poets borrow; great poets steal."
- T. S. Eliot

 

[arachnid]

Wait! A new install of Ubuntu (I assume 6.10 - the latest) and you already
need 175 meg of patches?

<grin>

I went through the same thing, thinking while doing it how some people
post in the Windows XP groups complaining about the monthly Microsoft
patches.

Ubuntu beat Window XP in the shear volume of patches in the first week
after the latest edition was placed on the web for download.

Remember, though, that unlike Windows, the Linux updater also updates
all of your applications. So, those patches are also for the hundreds of
additional applications that are part of the "bare" install, as well as
any other applications you might have added.

Dale, you should keep a running backup of all files added
to /var/cache/apt/archives by the package manger & updater. On later
systems you can replicate all your patches and applications by installing
from this backup. Just cd to your backup and run "sudo dpkg -i *.deb". I
use a cheap USB drive and have found 512M to be ample.

 

[Richard Urban]

OK.

So, Internet Explorer is an application. Media Player is another
application. Need I go ON.

Now, you are going to say that they are part of the operating system

Well, everything installed using a default install of Ubunto 6.10 is part of
the operating system as far as I am concerned, and there sure seems to be an
awful lot of patches for these applets on a continual basis.

That being said, I still am sort of impressed with Ubuntu.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[arachnid]

OK.

So, Internet Explorer is an application. Media Player is another
application. Need I go ON.

Now, you are going to say that they are part of the operating system

Why not? Microsoft has testified under oath that they're integral to
the OS.

Well, everything installed using a default install of Ubunto 6.10 is
part of the operating system as far as I am concerned, and there sure
seems to be an awful lot of patches for these applets on a continual
basis.

OpenOffice is hardly an "applet". And your idea of "a lot of patches" was
apparently derived by comparing an OS that comes with hundreds of
applications - and about 25 major ones such as OpenOffice and GIMP - to
the updates required by one that only updates the OS itself.

The continuous nature is natural with open-source. Whereas commercial
software tends to lump all the changes together and do infrequent
releases, open-source is a constant flow of small improvements. If the
constant updating is a problem, the update mechanism can be disabled or
set to do only security updates. Generally, though, things slow down
significantly after that first big update. I update about once a week and
it only takes a few minutes.

 

[arachnid]

I got the install done and Ubuntu running. The install was easy enough.
There were errors in the progress bar as it didn't keep up and bounced up
and down a few times - no big deal. It was 6.10. Now I have a pretty
orange Gnome desktop that is trying to imitate, of all things, a Windows
desktop. Weird.

You must be running Kubuntu, because gnome (Ubuntu) is nothing like
Windows. You can have multiple "start" menus, multiple workspaces, etc.

It has Open Office and Gnome, a basic media player, and FireFox.... I
have to figure out how to get an anti-virus on it and a proxy
server/firewall.

Media players can't be bundled for legal and/or proprietary reasons but
you can install them yourself via automatix. If it's not in the
repositories, just go to http://www.getautomatix.com and follow the
step-by-step instructions. Once it's installed you can select a whole
bunch of goodies for installation just by ticking off checkboxes.

I wouldn't want to use it for every day use. It's not snappy or
responsive like we have come to expect from Windows.

If you want snappy, install icewm. It's quite bare compared to Gnome or
KDE (or Windows), but that simplicity is what makes it so incredibly
quick. I've run a very usable GUI on a 200 Mhz CPU using icewm as my
window manager.

To switch window managers after installing a new one: Log out. Click on
Options->Sessions at the login screen. Select your window manager. A popup
will ask if this is one-time-only or permanent. It's best to go with one
time-only, until you know everything works to your satisfaction. The
differences between Window managers are more than cosmetic; if you stray
from gnome or kde, you will likely find the WM unintuitive and need to
read the docs to figure out how to use the thing. Icewm isn't too
different in normal use, but you need either a text editor or
external GUI applications to change its menus and settings.

The only difference between Ubuntu, Kubuntu, and Xubuntu are the window
managers - gnome, KDE, and xfce respectively. If you want to switch from
one to another, just install the associated window manager and switch to
it. Gnome and KDE are both huge and are changing fast, so installing
either of these will probably also result in a lot of updates.

Tip: If you end up using Gnome, right-click on the taskbar over near the
icon "tray" and select "Add to Panel". There's a lot of goodies there. One
you'll probably like is "system monitor". Add that. Right click on the
little graph that shows on the taskbar and you can add other graphs for
networks, etc.

Also if you haven't seen it before, ya' just gotta install gkrellm (works
with any window manager). For a pictorial idea of what you can do with
gkrellm:

http://members.dslextreme.com/users/billw/gkrellm/gkrellm.html

There are thousands of plugins out there that do all sorts of silly things
besides system monitoring - display the weather, play mp3's via xmms,
display webcam images, etc.

I am counting on it to tell me every time Vista, or any other Microsoft
product, phones home - as soon as I figure out how to get a proxy server
on it, that is.

There's no question that Windows phones home a lot. What people are
wondering about is what's in all those encrypted packets.