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What is the difference of a pre-installed XP Home OEM and Retail Full Version of XP Home?
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Michael Stevens
denb46 said:What is the difference of a pre-installed XP Home OEM and Retail Full
Version of XP Home?
Functionally none, difference would be in the licensing restrictions and if
a XP CD is not included, access to the contents of the value add folder on
the CD may be missing.
Click on the links below, or copy and paste the links into the address box
if using the web based newsgroup.
OEM
http://michaelstevenstech.com/xpfaq.html#can3
--
Michael Stevens MS-MVP XP
(e-mail address removed)
http://michaelstevenstech.com
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B
Bruce Chambers
Greetings --
The primary differences lie in the terms of the licensing. There
are some very important reasons that an OEM license costs so much less
than a retail license. OEM licenses are very limited:
1) OEM versions must be sold with a piece of hardware (normally
a motherboard or hard drive, if not an entire PC, although Microsoft
has greatly relaxed the hardware criteria for WinXP) and are
_permanently_ bound to the first PC on which they are installed. An
OEM license, once installed, is not legally transferable to another
computer under any circumstances. This is the main reason some people
avoid OEM versions; if the PC dies or is otherwise disposed of (even
stolen), you cannot re-use your OEM license on a new PC. The only
legitimate way to transfer the ownership of an OEM license is to
transfer ownership of the entire PC.
2) Microsoft provides no free support for OEM versions. If you
have any problems that require outside assistance, your only recourse
is to contact the manufacturer/builder of the PC or the vendor of the
OEM license. This would include such issues as lost a Product Key or
replacing damaged installation media. (Microsoft does make allowances
for those instances when you can prove that the OEM has gone out of
business.) This doesn't mean that you can't download patches and
service packs from Microsoft -- just no free telephone or email
support for problems with the OS.
3) An OEM CD cannot be used to perform an upgrade of an earlier
OS, as it was designed to be installed _only_ upon an empty hard
drive. It can still be used to perform a repair installation (a.k.a.
an in-place upgrade) of an existing WinXP installation.
4) If the OEM CD was designed by a specific manufacturer, such as
eMachines, Sony, Dell, Gateway, etc., it will most likely only install
on the same brand of PC, as an additional anti-piracy feature.
Further, such CDs are severely customized to contain only the minimum
of device drivers, and a lot of extra nonsense, that the manufacturer
feels necessary for the specific model of PC for which the CD was
designed. (To be honest, such CDs should _not_ be available on the
open market; but, if you're shopping someplace like eBay, swap meets,
or computer fairs, there's often no telling what you're buying until
it's too late.) The "generic" OEM CDs, such as are manufactured by
Microsoft and sold to small systems builders, don't have this
particular problem, though, and are pretty much the same as their
retail counterparts, apart from the licensing, support, and upgrading
restrictions.
Bruce Chambers
--
Help us help you:
You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. -- RAH
The primary differences lie in the terms of the licensing. There
are some very important reasons that an OEM license costs so much less
than a retail license. OEM licenses are very limited:
1) OEM versions must be sold with a piece of hardware (normally
a motherboard or hard drive, if not an entire PC, although Microsoft
has greatly relaxed the hardware criteria for WinXP) and are
_permanently_ bound to the first PC on which they are installed. An
OEM license, once installed, is not legally transferable to another
computer under any circumstances. This is the main reason some people
avoid OEM versions; if the PC dies or is otherwise disposed of (even
stolen), you cannot re-use your OEM license on a new PC. The only
legitimate way to transfer the ownership of an OEM license is to
transfer ownership of the entire PC.
2) Microsoft provides no free support for OEM versions. If you
have any problems that require outside assistance, your only recourse
is to contact the manufacturer/builder of the PC or the vendor of the
OEM license. This would include such issues as lost a Product Key or
replacing damaged installation media. (Microsoft does make allowances
for those instances when you can prove that the OEM has gone out of
business.) This doesn't mean that you can't download patches and
service packs from Microsoft -- just no free telephone or email
support for problems with the OS.
3) An OEM CD cannot be used to perform an upgrade of an earlier
OS, as it was designed to be installed _only_ upon an empty hard
drive. It can still be used to perform a repair installation (a.k.a.
an in-place upgrade) of an existing WinXP installation.
4) If the OEM CD was designed by a specific manufacturer, such as
eMachines, Sony, Dell, Gateway, etc., it will most likely only install
on the same brand of PC, as an additional anti-piracy feature.
Further, such CDs are severely customized to contain only the minimum
of device drivers, and a lot of extra nonsense, that the manufacturer
feels necessary for the specific model of PC for which the CD was
designed. (To be honest, such CDs should _not_ be available on the
open market; but, if you're shopping someplace like eBay, swap meets,
or computer fairs, there's often no telling what you're buying until
it's too late.) The "generic" OEM CDs, such as are manufactured by
Microsoft and sold to small systems builders, don't have this
particular problem, though, and are pretty much the same as their
retail counterparts, apart from the licensing, support, and upgrading
restrictions.
Bruce Chambers
--
Help us help you:
You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. -- RAH
Full Version of XP Home?denb46 said:What is the difference of a pre-installed XP Home OEM and Retail
K
Ken Blake, MVP
Retail Full Version of XP Home?What is the difference of a pre-installed XP Home OEM and
The software itself is the same. However the OEM version has the
following differences:
1. Its license ties it permanently to the first computer it's
installed on. It can never legally be moved to another computer,
sold, or given away.
2. It can only do a clean installation, not an upgrade.
3. Microsoft provides no support for OEM versions. You have to
get any needed support from your OEM, and that may range anywhere
between good and non-existent.
A
Alex Nichol
denb46 said:What is the difference of a pre-installed XP Home OEM and Retail Full Version of XP Home?
As far as the resulting installed software goes, they are the same. The
differences are:
OEM will only do a 'clean' install, not an upgrade, whereas Full will
upgrade as well
OEM carries no support from Microsoft - that is taken on by the OEM
vendor; assess what you are likely to get
OEM CDs will probably leave out the 'Valueadd' folder, that includes the
old Microsoft Backup tool (but that is really only important to people
wanting o bring backups from NT machines, and they would be using XP
Pro)
and most importantly:
OEM is licensed solely to the machine it is first installed on, and may
not later be removed and transferred to a new machine, as the Retail
version can
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