Vista OEM

  • Thread starter Thread starter Parisisehs
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Parisisehs

Sorry for repeating something htat has probably been asked. I did
search. We are a small school and have licensing for xp pro. When I
replace a machine I have to format the hard drive and install XP pro.
I am accumulating (3 so far) Vista home Premium Disks. The latest
Gateway laptop has an upgrade disk and a Gateway Operating System
disk.
I am assuming these have not been activated. So here goes. Can they be
used or are they just paperweights?
Thanks for your help.
 
Parisisehs said:
Sorry for repeating something htat has probably been asked. I did
search. We are a small school and have licensing for xp pro. When I
replace a machine I have to format the hard drive and install XP pro.
I am accumulating (3 so far) Vista home Premium Disks. The latest
Gateway laptop has an upgrade disk and a Gateway Operating System
disk.
I am assuming these have not been activated. So here goes. Can they be
used or are they just paperweights?
Thanks for your help.
Click to expand...

According to the OEM license, that copy of Vista can only be used on the
PC that it was sold with. Since you have replaced Vista with XP, they
are basically worthless unless you want to put Vista back on those
machines at some point in the future.
 
Parisisehs said:
Sorry for repeating something htat has probably been asked. I did
search. We are a small school and have licensing for xp pro. When I
replace a machine I have to format the hard drive and install XP pro.
I am accumulating (3 so far) Vista home Premium Disks. The latest
Gateway laptop has an upgrade disk and a Gateway Operating System
disk.
I am assuming these have not been activated. So here goes. Can they be
used or are they just paperweights?
Thanks for your help.
Click to expand...


Whether in practical terms you can use these on alternative hardware depends
on how closely they have been bound to the original hardware. You would
need to try to find out. There is also the issue of whether MS keep track
of which licences were sold to work with which hardware. Since every
software licence has to be activated you might find out then!
 
According to the OEM license, that copy of Vista can only be used on the
PC that it was sold with. Since you have replaced Vista with XP, they
are basically worthless unless you want to put Vista back on those
machines at some point in the future.
Click to expand...

But the good news is you're helping boost Microsoft's sales figures for
Vista.

Charlie
 
Parisisehs said:
Sorry for repeating something htat has probably been asked. I did
search. We are a small school and have licensing for xp pro. When I
replace a machine I have to format the hard drive and install XP pro.
I am accumulating (3 so far) Vista home Premium Disks. The latest
Gateway laptop has an upgrade disk and a Gateway Operating System
disk.
I am assuming these have not been activated. So here goes. Can they be
used or are they just paperweights?
Thanks for your help.
Click to expand...


Absolutely not, even if you can! Don't play around with your job. Just
install XP according to your licence and don't worry about the Vista discs.

If you are paying for the XP separately then you are probably entitled to
use the Vista elsewhere. But if not, then no you are not. But I would just
put it out of your mind either way. If ever there were an incident you might
be accused of stealing and for the sake of a couple Vista discs I wouldn't
take the risk. Just forget about them.

Saucy
 
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