Vista Question

[LarryS]

One computer (Acer laptop) has Vista Home Premium, one has Vista Home Basic. They were both preinstalled. Can I legally swap the operating systems on the machines? I do not have Windows Vista discs but I have access to the discs if needed.

 

[JustaGeek]

Legally...?

No.

 

[Aberforth]

LOL No, OEM licenses are non-transferable.

 

[LarryS]

Thanks, I had a feeling.

 

[SoundTheSurrender]

It's not "legal" but still possible.

 

[corkyg]

Your best legal course of action is to leave Premium on the Acer and upgrade the Basic to Premium on the other. To do that all you really need is a legal key.

Upgrade

Cheaper

 

[LarryS]

One last question. The Acer laptop with Home Premium did not come with a Vista DVD. Can I use a retail copy of Vista Home Premium upgrade to reformat the computer? Will the OEM key on the laptop work?

 

[Griffinhart]

Nope, you will need to contact Acer and have them send you an install/recovery disk. OEM keys don't work on retail disks.

 

[zig3695]

not only its possible you can be 100% truthful to microsoft when you call them to activate and everything will work fine. all theyre going to ask is "how many pc's is this key on?" and you say "one", because it is. its not like your stealing anything, your just using the key on a new machine and microsoft doesnt care that you do, even if they printed the eula to say otherwise. they just dont want one key on multiple machines, thats their real worry.

 

[JustaGeek]

It's still up to the OEM, which is ACER, not Microsoft, or the OP.

 

[Skeeedunt]

Originally posted by: Griffinhart
Nope, you will need to contact Acer and have them send you an install/recovery disk. OEM keys don't work on retail disks.

OEM keys work fine on Retail disks, though I'm not sure about Upgrade disks.