Reinstalling Win XP OEM on a different computer

[Chupa Chupa]

Hypothetically speaking of course...

Say a person bought and installed Windows XP Home OEM on a MBP 2.0. Then a few years later that person bought a new MBP 2.4. Person erased the MBP 2.0 drive and sold it.

If that person tried to install XP w/ the OEM license linked to the MBP 2.0 on the new MBP 2.4 would it activate or would too much hardware... like the entire computer... have been changed and the XP license would be useless.

 

[steveza]

Hypothetically speaking of course...

Say a person bought and installed Windows XP Home OEM on a MBP 2.0. Then a few years later that person bought a new MBP 2.4. Person erased the MBP 2.0 drive and sold it.

If that person tried to install XP w/ the OEM license linked to the MBP 2.0 on the new MBP 2.4 would it activate or would too much hardware... like the entire computer... have been changed and the XP license would be useless.

If you are going strictly to the letter of the licensing agreement then yes, an OEM license is permanently linked to the machine it was first installed on. Retail licenses do not have this restriction. In real terms you can probably still activate it by calling them up or use Windows 7 which free for the next year.

 

[RedRaven571]

...or use Windows 7 which free for the next year.

When I signed up to be a beta tester, MS said the pre-release version of Win 7 would expire in August 2009.

 

[RedRaven571]

Hypothetically speaking of course...

Say a person bought and installed Windows XP Home OEM on a MBP 2.0. Then a few years later that person bought a new MBP 2.4. Person erased the MBP 2.0 drive and sold it.

If that person tried to install XP w/ the OEM license linked to the MBP 2.0 on the new MBP 2.4 would it activate or would too much hardware... like the entire computer... have been changed and the XP license would be useless.

It will work just fine, I assume you bought the OEM software online (since, AFAIK, Apple doesn't ship Mac with windows pre-installed); if so, it will work just like a 'retail' version. Just reinstall on your new MBP, and let it phone home to activate.

 

[sushi]

When I signed up to be a beta tester, MS said the pre-release version of Win 7 would expire in August 2009.

New version out on the 4th.

Expires on June 1, 2010. Although March 1, 2010 it will start shutting down every 2 hours according to the site.

Please see this post/thread.

 

[RedRaven571]

New version out on the 4th.

Expires on June 1, 2010. Although March 1, 2010 it will start shutting down every 2 hours according to the site.

Please see this post/thread.

Duh! I misunderstood! Now I might actually give the RC version a try; I didn't want the aggravation of installing it on a computer then having it be unusable by August.

Thanks!

 

[steveza]

Duh! I misunderstood! Now I might actually give the RC version a try; I didn't want the aggravation of installing it on a computer then having it be unusable by August.

Thanks!

Yup you've got until March realistically but it will run (sort of) until June.

 

[jarheadatunm]

It will work just fine, I assume you bought the OEM software online (since, AFAIK, Apple doesn't ship Mac with windows pre-installed); if so, it will work just like a 'retail' version. Just reinstall on your new MBP, and let it phone home to activate.

Sorry to jump in here, but how did you get the OEM to install? I assume you are using bootcamp? I have posted a thread in here because I bought XP pro OEM and it will not allow me to format the partition, thus I get a disc error after it installs. Seriously irritating me. Again, sorry for the hijack, but you are the first person to say that OEM will work on a MBPro!