Darrell Fransen said:
I have "fried" my motherboard, no big deal, but now my OEM Win XP software
is no longer useable and I must get a new copy of Windows XP. Many Internet
retailers are selling OEM versions for less than $100, while the retail
versions are almost twice that much. The question is, can I use a new OEM
version and still be able to activate it, or must I buy the retail version?
OEM versions of Windows are less versatile than the retail versions,
because of the licensing differences. In particular the license for
an OEM version is permanently locked to the first computer that it is
installed on and may not be transferred to another computer under any
circumstances; even if the first computer is destroyed, stolen, or
scrapped.
Retail licenses on the other hand belong to the purchaser and may be
transferred from computer to computer to computer as the owner sees
fit, provided only that the license can only ever be installed on a
single computer at any given point in time.
It appears that your original OEM version may have been from one of
the major brand computer manufacturers and therefore came with a
"system recovery" disk rather than a complete installation CD.
The OEM versions that you buy on the Internet are usually the generic
OEM versions sold by Microsoft to small computer manufacturers and
assemblers. These are full installation CDs and therefore more usable
than the "system recovery" disks, but the licensing limitations are
still there.
See
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca/oem_software.htm for more information
about OEM software.
Hope this is of some assistance.
Good luck
Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca
"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."
