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Cheapest place to get Windows XP
- Thread starter Hugh
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But it is not the original software install. Software was previously installed on the system.Timepass said:
How does your logic extend to reassemblers as in my edit above?
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I suggest not buying it. Everyone with a Windows PC has one, you can just borrow one and it wouldn't matter.
Also does Windows Media Center Edition work on Macs as well?
Also does Windows Media Center Edition work on Macs as well?
And this attitude is exactly why Microsoft should be very happy to sell a reasonably priced, limited support, OEM license of their 5 year old OS to anyone who is willing to pay for one.HckySo said:
As for MCE, yes, but. Look at some of the specific threads on that subject.
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Windows XP student license: $3.60
Boot Camp: free
Selling illegally and ripping off Microsoft: priceless
Boot Camp: free
Selling illegally and ripping off Microsoft: priceless
Hugh said:
Several schools (including mine) allow students to have FREE downloadable microsoft software (everything but office), or you can normally pay < $5 for a CD from the campus bookstore.
Try China. Here, you can buy a copy of Windoze XP for 8rmb ($1.00) on the street or 10-12 ($1.25-1.50) on Taobao or eBay.
Are they legal copies? I heard China is a hotbed for piracy.herrmill said:Try China. Here, you can buy a copy of Windoze XP for 8rmb ($1.00) on the street or 10-12 ($1.25-1.50) on Taobao or eBay.
Duh! Most everything found here is pirated whether it be DVDs or software.
My guess is that 95% of indiviiduals & the majority of business use pirated software.
Even the rich & powerful aren't immune from temptation. Prior to Dubya's last visit, his father was here the week prior & seen buying a fake watch in the Beijing's Silk Road market.
My guess is that 95% of indiviiduals & the majority of business use pirated software.
Even the rich & powerful aren't immune from temptation. Prior to Dubya's last visit, his father was here the week prior & seen buying a fake watch in the Beijing's Silk Road market.
Just to clear things up, an OEM license is adequate and legal for installation on a Mac, as balamw has stated. The license must be tied to the computer system, however (so you can't have it installed on a hard drive and swap back and forth between two computers, for example).
However, this:
However, this:
is not strictly legal. An upgrade license cannot be used on a "virgin" computer--it can only be used to upgrade a machine with a prior license to a full copy of Windows.balamw said:
Uh. No. As the installer enforces, you can do a clean install with an upgrade license, as long as you provide proof of that previous full license. It doesn't have to be installed at the time.matticus008 said:
From the box I have in front of me
I previously checked the EULA to see if I could transfer it to another comp. and here's what I found from the CD.
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You can use it provided that you have a full license for the previous product AND that that product license is for the computer you are installing the upgrade on. In other words, you have to transfer the license to your Mac. The upgrade license for XP and the full license for the prior version must BOTH be in use for the Mac (meaning you can't install Windows 2000 on one computer and then install XP on the Mac). Whether or not you do a clean install isn't the issue. I said prior license, not prior installation.balamw said:
Also, that full version license cannot typically be an OEM copy and instead has to be a retail copy, as most OEM copies are not legally eligible for upgrade, but the licensing terms have varied with this provision.
Where does it say that my right to transfer the current license (of XP) to another workstation is contingent on anything but the removal of XP from the other box? Please provide the appropriate backup for your assertions, as I have. The way I read it the new XP license supercedes all previous licenses I may have had, in effect it becomes the only license.matticus008 said:
I concur that by installing the upgrade license any such licenses that were upgraded become null and void, so you can't just continue to run the old OS license on the old machine. In my case, the old machine has been disassembled and the hard drive was (at least temporarily) in a USB enclosure attached to my iMac during the install process. (Now it's on a shelf). Think of it as I replaced the motherboard and video card of the machine, but kept the hard drive. IMHO, though IANAL, I have fully complied with my transfer right in the EULA by physically removing the OS from the machine that it had previously been installed on. If I choose to reinstall Windows on there, I will need to buy a new license.
Note that your example is a bit misleading in that Win2K is not eligible for an upgrade to XP Home (only to XP Pro). Further complicating things, some licenses, give you OS downgrade rights, where you are given the right to run an older version of the OS on the licensed machine. (e.g. you can buy a license of XP Pro, when you need to run 2K). Since you can't currently buy 2K, this is a way the Microsoft allows people to legally buy a license and use the OS they need to support legacy apps, etc...
EDIT: Here's the current XP Home EULA http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/eula.mspx
Read in particular point 21, point 13 and point 9. In that order.
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treblah said:
LOL The only place I know where to get it for free ... well you gotta ask the college if they have a lot of unopened XP "home" disc. I swear the last time I was there, they have bunch of these! Check it out!
Malfoy said:You goto RIT? I only ask because I do and the situation you described is what we do here. I picked up my copy of XP for $4.60
RIT? Isn't that a deaf school or something?
supremedesigner said:
LOL, we do have one of the largest deaf schools in the country, http://www.ntid.rit.edu/. But first and foremost we are a tech school.
Removal of the software from one machine to install on another machine is the process by which you transfer a license from one to the other. We're not in disagreement here. I'm not sure where you're reading that you have to do more than that in my posts.balamw said:
Yes, that's accurate. However, if you will look at your original post, you didn't mention your original license. You stated that you transfered an upgrade license to a new computer without making mention of removing the prior version from the computer, which is misleading to others. By your original statements alone, you could potentially mislead others into thinking that you can have a prior version of Windows on a PC and buy a Windows XP upgrade license and install it on the Mac, with the only requirement being that you own a license for another version of Windows. This is not accurate, and is the issue I wanted to address.
If you buy an upgrade license, there must concurrently be a FULL VERSION license for that machine. Your original post does not mention this requirement, and given that relative newbies will be reading this post, it was incomplete and inaccurate.
As long as you have a license to the full version of a prior version of Windows (be it XP Pro, Home, MCE, 2000, 98) and that license is attached to your Macintosh, you can use an upgrade license to bring that machine up to date along a qualified upgrade path. If your full version of the prior OS is not a full retail edition, but instead a full OEM version, there is a high likelihood that the upgrade license is NOT valid, even though the disc will check out. The CD checking is not a final arbiter of license validity (you could also just borrow a neighbor's CD to fool the upgrade installer), so you cannot proceed on the assumption that your licensing arrangement is legal just because you installed successfully.
I just used Windows 2000 as an example of a prior version. It wasn't meant as a universal upgrade strategy.
Also take note that that is NOT the license agreement for OEM copies of Windows. Referencing your own link, item 21's terms are the extent of the agreement between you and Microsoft if you are a party of that EULA--the Windows XP Home Edition Retail End-User License Agreement. Terms for an OEM copy of Microsoft Windows vary depending on the source.
Well we agree on that too! I think we agree much more than we disagree, and I think it has been a useful discussion.matticus008 said:
My main point is this. There is not such thing as an OEM upgrade licenses, only retail Full Packaged Product labelled as such. In order to qualify for this upgrade you need a legal, upgradeable, license of a product than Microsoft has deemed eligible for the upgrade installed on a PC or available to be installed on a PC. (This appears to be what you are referring to as the full license, but it could also be a previous upgrade license, or qualifying OEM license, etc...). Let's call this the old license.
In the case of the license I used to qualify for the upgrade, its history derives from a license of MS DOS 5.0 I got with a long dead 80186 Tandy PC (before they differentiated OEM and retail licenses) upgraded that to MS DOS 6.2, upgraded that to Windows 3.1, upgraded that to Windows 95, and most recently upgraded to XP Home. I also have separate Windows 98, Win2K, XP Pro, and Windows ME licenses and media. Only the XP Pro (OEM) license is on a machine that is currently in use. The 98 and ME licenses are tied to machines and are not transferrable.
Installing the upgrade revokes your old license and gives you a new Windows license that is now governed by the retail EULA I linked to. Said retail EULA gives you the right to internally transfer said new license to another computer, which may or not have been your right under the old license.
When you transfer the new license to the new machine, you remove the new license from the old machine and install it on the new machine. The old revoked license no longer comes in to the picture except in that the media can be used to satisfy the installer.
As you stated the license and the installer are not equivalent. Satisfying the installer doesn't mean you have a valid, legal license, and having a legal license doesn't immediately satisfy the installer or activation. Note that I used the full Windows ME media I received from Microsoft as part of my participation in their beta program to satisfy the installer, even though the XP license itself was derived most recently from a separate Windows 95 license I no longer know where the floppies (yes, I said floppies) went. I know I have them, just not at my fingertips.
Again, IANAL, this is only my opinion. Read the documents yourself and come to your own conclusions.
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