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XP upgrade

E

Evdawg

Senior member
I was looking at buying an XP home or Pro upgrade, but its from manufacturers like Compaq, Dell, etc. Is this ok? Would it be better to just spend the extra 20 for a full version? Thanks
 
Link to what you're looking at? 😕 I thought only Microsoft themselves made the Upgrade family.
 
Originally posted by: Evdawg
sorry... heres an example =)
Click to expand...
No COA (Certificate of Authenticity) is included in this package
Click to expand...
So what they're selling you is a CD-ROM containing the install files, but no license to use the software legally, nor an installation key to install it. And that software would only be legit for the Dell that its COA is stuck to somewhere anyway. edit: incidentally, Microsoft themselves would probably sell you a WinXP CD-ROM w/out key for half of what they're charging there 😛

So yeah, either get a legit OEM WinXP license and CD with qualifying hardware (at Newegg or wherever), or get retail-boxed full version Windows. Retail-boxed can be legally used on any single system that you want to, indefinitely. OEM full version is a consumable item, you install it on one system and use it until you replace the mobo, at which time you're evidently supposed to re-license (meaning, buy it over again). I'm sticking with retail-boxed from now on, since I have an incurable case of Ongoing PC Upgrade Syndrome 😀
 
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