OEM/Retail difference?

[jeffr]

What is the difference between OEM/Retail Vista?:confused:

[HAL9000]

Support... OEM is supported by the seller, Retail is supported by Microsoft.... oh... and fancy box and packaging you get with the retail.

[bd1886]

Plus there are a few others. Upgrading doesn't exist in the future. The os is restricted to the motherboard used in initial build.(This does have some latitude which is influenced by chipset in new board and the point person, at MS, when reinstalling). Guess the number of times you upgrade components, can trigger a big brother restriction too. The retail version can be transfered to new builds and has minimal service restrictions. I checked all over to get the same question answered and found all kinds of misinformation and stupid statements. The things that sold me on going with oem was... by the time you figure in price, you can buy two oems and support is going to be all over the place in a few months.Plus... Most people stick with their original mb.( Pick your motherboard well.) glc, cut right to the chase, and gave me the MS link concerning the issue. One thing I don't know is how service packs figure into all of this? (Should be asking this elsewhere but... How do you insert a link anyway?)

[jeffr]

Plus there are a few others. Upgrading doesn't exist in the future. The os is restricted to the motherboard used in initial build.(This does have some latitude which is influenced by chipset in new board and the point person, at MS, when reinstalling). Guess the number of times you upgrade components, can trigger a big brother restriction too. The retail version can be transfered to new builds and has minimal service restrictions. I checked all over to get the same question answered and found all kinds of misinformation and stupid statements. The things that sold me on going with oem was... by the time you figure in price, you can buy two oems and support is going to be all over the place in a few months.Plus... Most people stick with their original mb.( Pick your motherboard well.) glc, cut right to the chase, and gave me the MS link concerning the issue. One thing I don't know is how service packs figure into all of this? (Should be asking this elsewhere but... How do you insert a link anyway?)

I'm almost 100% positive that with an OEM, you cannot add service packs later!

[pam123]

I'm almost 100% positive that with an OEM, you cannot add service packs later!

Yes you can add service packs later ( Can you just imagine what would happen with all Microsoft's OEM customers, like Dell, Gateway, and HP if that weren't so? ) but should you decide to upgrade with a new motherboard you will run into activation issues with Microsoft.

[ktkendall]

I've had no trouble doing windows updates including service pacs and have changed out my complete system at least 3 times with my current OEM version of WinXP without any problems concerning activation or updating. I believe it's those restore disks that come with the Dell's and other prebuilds that you may not be able to use for any other PC, but a pure OEM version of windows that you can get from newegg will work fine for all your needs only thing missing is the pretty box and tech support from Microsoft. At least that holds true for XP, I'm not sure about vista, and from everything I've read so far, I'm in no hurry to upgrade either.

[chssvl]

Looking at Newegg's array of OEM windows vista products, they all say 32 bit. Does that mean that if I want to run at 64 bits I have to buy the retail version?

[pam123]

Looking at Newegg's array of OEM windows vista products, they all say 32 bit. Does that mean that if I want to run at 64 bits I have to buy the retail version?


Yes.

[mairving]

Follow this link: Windows Vista 64bit Ultimate OEM version (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16832116215)

[chssvl]

mmmhhh. So is it only available as Ultimate? What the hell, I'll just wait for the first SP to come out before switching.

[mairving]

Home Basic (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16832116200)
Home Premium (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16832116204)
Business (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16832116211)