Question about oem's

JohnDoH!

JohnDoH!

New Member
I was just wondering but if I were to reformat my computer for whatever reason and I purchased an Oem, say OEM window xp home, would i still be able to use the OEM? and reformat as in restarting my computer and right before window logo appears in dos the option to reformat my harddrive by pressing f8, blah blah blah.

I've noticed that window xp on newegg has the candidate upgrade vista thing, if I were to reformat my computer and it does allow me to use the OEM Cd then can I upgrade to window vista again? or would I only be able to use window xp.

If I reformat my Harddrive, and since my dvd-rw is a Oem, does that mean I wont be able to use the drive? or the software like nero/cyberlink that came with the Oem drive? or both?
 
OEM just means that it doesn't come with the fancy packaging and yes you should be able to install it after reformating you might have to call MS though.
 
I reformatted and reinstalled XP home using a different XP CD from the original (this one was OEM) but I used the original product key from the PC CoA label. No problems, didn't have to call microsoft. I think the product key and whatever ID the PC sends are just checked against each other.

If you don't have a CoA label on the PC, use 'Magical Jelly Bean' NOW to make a record of your product key. Then you could just borrow an XP CD to reinstall.
 
It is "illegal" to sell OEM Windows without hardware. If they are doing it, Microsoft can bust them large.

With that said, it will install on any computer. The activation just makes a hash of the hardware that's in it and reports that to Microsoft. They can use that to identify if it's installed on more than one computer. Other than that, they have no idea whether you bought the Windows with the computer or not.
 
No, I'm not wrong. I'm a vendor, I know the rules (I have to). I have bought and sold a zillion copies of Windows.

Newegg might be doing it, but they can get busted if they get caught. I have run into a few dealers that do it. Most of them, though, will not. It even tells you right on the box on a nice red label (you buy them by the box or individually) that it is not to be sold without hardware.
 
does OEM includes the cd key? we have use a single cd key in all our PC's here they said its already been taken cared off by our main office branch. for me it sounds fishy
 
chrisalviola

Not sure, but I think that manufacturers can be licenced to install a version of Windows that does not require validation. Therefore they can simply ghost a whole load of identical HHD's with all software ready to go.
I wonder if this means then that all the Keys are identical too (but presumably then the CoA label on the case carries the 'true' Key which is unique to that PC.
 
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