what is a license?

[tamirtoad]

I'm building a pc for a friend and he wants me me to stick xp-home ed on it. xp is expensive. especially when the price range is $0-$300. and you gotta get 512 megs of ram.
Anyways, ive got a windows xp disk and stuff, but its being used on another computer and i cant use it on another computer that i might build or else i might have to flush it down the toilet when the cops come. so i was wondering- does a license give you the power to reproduce it and stick it on another computer? if so are there any special procedures required in installing the os a second time?

thanks

[hobey19]

a license only allows you to install it on one computer at a time. that is all it entitles you to. to install it on another one, you would have to take it off the other one

craig

[ZeratulsAvenger]

Arent some installations also licensed to only THAT computer? I thought Dell's and HP's and those types were like that, done with the help of the BIOS and whatnot...

An OEM/retail version of XP that you might buy in a store and such are only to be installed on one computer though at a time. You can get a corporate copy or something that has several licenses I think, but that really wouldnt be of much use here I guess

[Confused]

Since your friend is paying for it get a OEM copy of XP Home from Newegg for $90.00 http://www.newegg.com/software/?DEPA=6

Chas

[thorlo6]

[QUOTE=tamirtoad]I'm building a pc for a friend and he wants me me to stick xp-home ed on it. xp is expensive. especially when the price range is $0-$300. and you gotta get 512 megs of ram.
Anyways, ive got a windows xp disk and stuff, but its being used on another computer and i cant use it on another computer that i might build or else i might have to flush it down the toilet when the cops come. so i was wondering- does a license give you the power to reproduce it and stick it on another computer? if so are there any special procedures required in installing the os a second time?
[QUOTE=tamirtoad]
You can still use the copy you have. All you have to do, is go to newegg and get a license. The license allows you to install your copy onto another PC. Just be careful and, for heaven's sake, don't throw the COA away that comes attached to the shrink wrap. Talk about being in trouble if you do! thorlo6

[tamirtoad]

so you guys are saying that if i get a license, all i would need to do is install xp on that other computer and i would be fine right? (no microsoft cops banging on the door, coming to arest me)

[hobey19]

right, but the license is almost (not quite) but almost as expensive as buying it with a cd as well. it is not the cd that microsoft cares about, but rather the license associated w/ it. you can have 6 computers, one cd and 6 licenses, and you are fine

craig

[tamirtoad]

Thanks alot and you can save $ by buying the license. (http://www.salesintl.com/product.asp?0=0&1=0&3=100)
anyways, thanks

[JTH]

Also, you don't need 512mb to run XP. I have run it on 256mb PC133 and it ran perfectly smoothly!

[tamirtoad]

i know that you can, I'm running it pretty smoothly with 64 megs of RAM and a 500mhz cpu on an older computer, but he wants 512 mb of RAM

[JTH]

I am replying to him saying "you gotta get 512 megs of ram" in the first post. Just explaining that it's not actually a system requirement.