Windows XP Licensing Issues

[Guest]

I'm in a bit of a licensing dilemma here. We have a number of machines that
have OEM licenses for Windows XP, but we downgraded these machines to Windows
2000. Now, we want to upgrade them back to Windows XP, but the OEM says that
the product recovery CD's will only allow us to restore the machine with
Windows XP to factory defaults and not upgrade from 2000 to XP. There are
about 12 of these machines, and we have a WinXP Volume License package with 6
licenses, but short of purchasing another 6 or wiping out the additional 6
machines and starting from scratch with factory defaults, is there any other
way to accomplish a 2000 upgrade to XP?

Thanks for any help!

Marc

 

[--Alias--]

I'm in a bit of a licensing dilemma here. We have a number of machines that
have OEM licenses for Windows XP, but we downgraded these machines to Windows
2000. Now, we want to upgrade them back to Windows XP, but the OEM says that
the product recovery CD's will only allow us to restore the machine with
Windows XP to factory defaults and not upgrade from 2000 to XP. There are
about 12 of these machines, and we have a WinXP Volume License package with 6
licenses, but short of purchasing another 6 or wiping out the additional 6
machines and starting from scratch with factory defaults, is there any other
way to accomplish a 2000 upgrade to XP?

Thanks for any help!

Marc

Nope, OEM versions will not upgrade. You need to do a clean install, sorry.

Alias

 

[Guest]

Damn...thats what I thought. I suppose I could always just purchase WinXP
Volume Licenses and use those to upgrade, right? It just seems wasteful then
since we already paid for the OS the first time around when we purchased the
machine...

If we already have 6 licenses for a WinXP Volume License, can we just add
more licenses on to that, or do we have to purchase a totally separate 6 more
licenses with different product key, etc.?

 

[--Alias--]

Damn...thats what I thought. I suppose I could always just purchase WinXP
Volume Licenses and use those to upgrade, right? It just seems wasteful then
since we already paid for the OS the first time around when we purchased the
machine...

If we already have 6 licenses for a WinXP Volume License, can we just add
more licenses on to that, or do we have to purchase a totally separate 6 more
licenses with different product key, etc.?

Sorry, I don't know about volume licenses as I have no experience with
them. If they're the same as retail versions, yes, they can be used to
upgrade.

Alias

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

You'll need to purchase six (6) more Volume Licenses,
then use the VL Windows XP Pro CD you already
have to upgrade. OEM versions of Windows XP
have no upgrade capability.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows - Shell/User

Enjoy all the benefits of genuine Microsoft software:
http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/default.mspx

---------------------------------------------------------------------------­---------------------------------

:

| Damn...thats what I thought. I suppose I could always just purchase WinXP
| Volume Licenses and use those to upgrade, right? It just seems wasteful then
| since we already paid for the OS the first time around when we purchased the
| machine...
|
| If we already have 6 licenses for a WinXP Volume License, can we just add
| more licenses on to that, or do we have to purchase a totally separate 6 more
| licenses with different product key, etc.?

 

[Guest]

I'm curious, since volume licenses are "upgrade only" and so is the software
on the volume license CD, why wouldn't an OEM version be upgradable?
Microsoft knows the base license is OEM but they intentionally ship "upgrade
only" media. The full version media must be downloaded from the MVLS website.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

I'm curious, since volume licenses are "upgrade only" and so is the software
on the volume license CD, why wouldn't an OEM version be upgradable?

OEM installations *are* upgradeable. OEM CDs cannot perform upgrades.


--

Bruce Chambers

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