Diff. between OEM and full retail version OS

[Lioness]

My question is what is the difference between an OEM and "full retail version" of winXP OS besides price?
To clarify, I plan on purchasing a PC system which includes the OEM version of winXP.

From what I understand, and please correct if I'm wrong:

The end user can only get support from the PC vendor who supplied the OEM OS.

My question: If I should trash my HDD or set-up the OEM OS on another PC would there be a problem such as an activation issue? Or any issue, for that matter, that I should be aware of?

Hardware/software question with winXP:
if the drivers are not available either through the winXP disc or on the hardware/software online sites can I safely assume that my software apps. or hardware would be equivalent to trash?

Thanks in advance for helping a newbie understand how all this works.

 

[jfunk]

The difference is indeed the support. MS will not support the OEM version, since the PC builder is supposed to do that. I've never known anybody to get anything usefull from MS support anyway.

If you have to reinstall or change too much hardware, you have to call MS to get a new activation code, so yes there is a hassle of some sorts there, but that is the same whether you have OEM or retail.

You shouldn't have any hardware that won't work. Some things might be a slight pain to get going, but I haven't heard of anybody that was SOL with anything yet.


j