how do you legally reinstall windows?

[OBLAMA2009]

i ruined my motherboard trying to upgrade the chip so i would like to put my windows xp on a new machine. what is the procedure for doing that as far as microsoft is concerned so that i will be able to legally activate it on my new machine. do i have to remove it from my old hard drive in order activate it on my new machine or does that old installation get deactivated by microsoft once i activate my new installation? also is there a limit to the number of times i can install xp?




Thread moved from Software For Windows to Operating Systems.


AnandTech Moderator
mechBgon

 

[VeryCharBroiled]

is it a retail (store bought boxed disk) or OEM (came pre-installed on a computer) copy?

retail can be installed as many times as you wish, just one copy active at a time. so you would just install it and off you go.

OEM (like if it came with the PC, such a dell or HP etc) legally cant reinstalled on a new build.

if you have no XP disk at all sounds like its OEM pre installed on the HD, and legally youre out of luck.

 

[theAnimal]

With OEM, if your mobo dies, you're allowed to replace it with a different one if the original is no longer available. (I had no trouble reactivating my OEM with a different mobo & CPU.)

 

[Billb2]

Whether it's retail or OEM and, if outside the EULA, you'll get kicked into phone activation.
MS is really pretty good about re-activations there.
Just explain your (reasonable) situation.

And, no, "I downloaded a copy from bittorrent" won't do it.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

Originally posted by: VeryCharBroiled
is it a retail (store bought boxed disk) or OEM (came pre-installed on a computer) copy?

retail can be installed as many times as you wish, just one copy active at a time. so you would just install it and off you go.

OEM (like if it came with the PC, such a dell or HP etc) legally cant reinstalled on a new build.

if you have no XP disk at all sounds like its OEM pre installed on the HD, and legally youre out of luck.

i have the retail version. are you saying i can just reinstall without deactivating my previous installation? i dont have to do anything about that? does microsoft then deactivate the previous installation?

what if you have the generic oem version (non hp , dell etc..)? if you build a new computer are you allowed to move your license to your new computer?

 

[VeryCharBroiled]

Originally posted by: OBLAMA2009

Originally posted by: VeryCharBroiled
retail can be installed as many times as you wish, just one copy active at a time. so you would just install it and off you go.

OEM (like if it came with the PC, such a dell or HP etc) legally cant reinstalled on a new build.

i have the retail version. are you saying i can just reinstall without deactivating my previous installation? i dont have to do anything about that? does microsoft then deactivate the previous installation?

for retail version, no need to deactivate the previous version. as long as its not in use its considered "deactivated" by MS. just reinstall on the new system. should fire up right over the net, Ive transferred one of my retail XP copies through 4 computer builds (one active at a time), and all activated over the net.

if it doesnt just call the number it tells you and tell them its the retail version (they will know anyway) and your old system is no longer in use. they will give you the unlock code.

Originally posted by: OBLAMA2009what if you have the generic oem version (non hp , dell etc..)? if you build a new computer are you allowed to move your license to your new computer?

in theory, youre not supposed to but as has been posted, MS is pretty forgiving about it.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

thanks for you help!!!!

 

[Billb2]

Originally posted by: OBLAMA2009
what if you have the generic oem version (non hp , dell etc..)? if you build a new computer are you allowed to move your license to your new computer?

According to the EULA, no.
But if you call and talk real nice, they'll activate it for you.

 

[F1shF4t]

Originally posted by: Billb2

Originally posted by: OBLAMA2009
what if you have the generic oem version (non hp , dell etc..)? if you build a new computer are you allowed to move your license to your new computer?

According to the EULA, no.
But if you call and talk real nice, they'll activate it for you.

Don't need to even talk, it'll activate it by phone (you will get those two prompts when it asks you have you uninstalled it from a previous pc, and if its only installed on one) I was playing musical maiboards for a while when trying to solve some stability issues, turned out that two memory sticks didn't like each other

With vista you can even use the keys on the oem stickers. It'll say that its an invalid number when trying to do net activation but will activate by phone fine. Very useful when you want to install a fresh copy of x64 version on a laptop and use the license key which came with it.