noname said:
Just a question regarding OEM Windows.
Right now i use a OEM but i was reading that OEM is bound to
particular hardware. That would mean that i can not install this OEM
on a new pc.
Is this true? If i knew that i would have bought the fullversion which
wasn't even that much more expensive.
These terms tend to be used somewhat imprecisely.
Full retail: can be used on any computer (though only one at a time),
and transferred. The most expensive type (in UK, can cost similar to a
whole new PC with preloaded Windows included).
Another type (I think sometimes called "system builder"): can be
installed on one PC, but not transferred to another PC. What "another
PC" means is wooly - you can change things, like amount of RAM, disc
drives, etc., as long as you don't change too much in too short a time
so that it "thinks" it's been copied to a new PC. Different changes have
different "weighting", with the change of a motherboard having the
highest; if you change too much in too short a time, it will ask you to
revalidate with Microsoft, possibly to the extent of having to convince
someone over the 'phone (e. g. that your motherboard died). [It is my
understanding that Windows 7 is more sophisticated in what it allows
than XP was.]
OEM in its purest meaning is Original Equipment Manufacturer, and refers
to licences sold in large numbers to the big manufacturers (Dell etc.)
for preinstallation. However, the term is sometimes used for licences
(usually with installation media; the big OEM ones usually _don't_ have
the media, as the machines are mass-produced and -loaded in the factory)
for other types of construction.
I think there are other types too.
When you say you are using a OEM, do you mean a PC that came with
Windows pre-installed, or - as I suspect, since you refer indirectly to
its cost, which wouldn't be obvious as a separate component if you'd
just bought a PC - Windows that came on media that you installed?
