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Question about OEM license - Will this work?

F

fr

Diamond Member
I bought a Sony Vaio that came with an OEM Windows XP Professional license. Sony never gave me any restore discs and I have already deleted the restore partition on the HD.

I have a retail XP Pro full install CD. If I ever wanted to reinstall the original OS, modifying the setupp.ini and changing the disc to OEM should work with the key provided with the Vaio right?

Is this all fine and legal if I were to resell the system?
 
I don't know exactly. Your best bet would be to see if you can get Sony to cough up some restore media. As for the install, though, I think it might be a curious mixture of legal and illegal. You would be licenced to use XP Pro on that machine, so you'd be on the level; but you probably break more licence provisions(and possibly federal laws, depending on which way the DMCA points that day) than I care to think about by modifying the install disk like that.

Frankly, I'd have a chat with Sony first, as that is the best way, legally, and if that doesn't work just go ahead and reinstall as above. The Windows install, once finished, should be perfectly legal and legitimate, and function properly. I wouldn't, however, be entirely comfortable with selling a modded install CD with the laptop.
 
I tried doing this with a Gateway laptop that came with XP Professional. The client had lost the original OEM XP Pro disk. There was no recovery partitiion. So I tried to convert an XP Pro Retail disk to OEM. Despite my research and an evening of trials (burning five CDs in the process), I couldn't get it to work. I finally got it to install with the Gateway OEM COA key, but it wouldn't activate. Maybe you'll have better luck.

You DO own a license for XP Professional on that PC. All you need to do is find a way to install it and activate it. It could be, that, in my case, Microsoft would have activated it for me. But as a Microsoft Partner, I'm NOT supposed to use my own CDs to install software on client's PCs. Even if it's obvious that they own a Windows license for the PC.

Moral: The best course, technically and legally, is to get a CD from Sony.
 
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