Have DELL WinXP cd, would it work...

[justtoolate]

I have a Dell right now, and as with most new systems built buy a company, it came with an XP cd that I've used several times to reinstall WinXP on this machine.

I want to know, because there is no activiation on it, if I can just use it to install XP on my new build.

I emailed DELL Support a week ago and I got a response:

Adam please note that the DEll install XP OS (bundled OS) has the full features of the Win XP OS (just as in retail version of win XP). Only if you have Win ME oe Win 98 and if the customer purchases an upgraded coupon on Win XP then all the features of win XP are not included in the upgrade coupon. But a Dell installed Win XP has all the features.

Is this possible? Would this be a bad idea? Could it work?

Thanks.

[M. A. Dockter]

So long as you have a license for the software you plan to use on the machine you plan to install it to, it should work out just fine.

[justtoolate]

What do you mean by license Dockter? Everytime I've installed XP on this machine, it has never asked me for a key or to be activated.

[Mac Medic]

He means it's illegal to install windows on more than 1 machine without buying a license for each PC. You're dell disc should work, but you will have to take it off the dell to stay within the law regardless of if it ask's you to activate or not.

[justtoolate]

Okay, thanks for your responses.

Now, can I just purchase a license w/o the cd and everything from Microsoft? Is it cheaper?

[Mac Medic]

Yes, it is a bit cheaper, by about $15. Better bet seeing as you built your new PC would be to buy an OEM copy from Newegg of the like, roughly $150. Or if you have an older OS thats not being used, you could buy an upgrade for $99.

[setfree]

I had a recovery cd for a toshiba system that had a copy of windows 98se on it. I upgraded the computer (added a new motherboard, cpu, and ram) and the next time I tried running the recovery disk it wouldn't let me because it didn't detect the right hardware. Not sure if your Dell cd has this same feature or not. However you could get an oem copy of XP home from newegg.com for around $93.

[Panama Red]

Googlegear has XP home for $91.99, free 2nd day shipping. Gotta buy some hardware too, tho, cuz this is oem version. Think same policy applies at newegg.

[setfree]

Newegg has a special right now where when you buy an oem microsoft product you get a free piece of hardware with it so you don't have to buy anything. It's something cheap obviously.

[sdkfz]

I second the can't use the disk on a non dell machine hardware thing. I found a whole set of disks in a dell box at work and couple of months back. After turning them in I eventually got them back cause they really were thrown out and no one came to claim them. I tried to do an install on a new partition and I got "this is not a dell computer" types of messages. This is anoher reason a build your own is better, your OS is YOUR OS not the computer's.

I am sure that you could probably hack/crack etc your way in, but then this is not the forum for that.......

[justtoolate]

sdkfz, when did you get that message? Right when you put the cd in and tried to enter WinXP setup?

I'm asking this because this morning I popped that CD in my old Gateway 500, which is running an upgrade that I legally bought, and it went right into setup, asking me to perform a repair or install.

[sdkfz]

been a few installs since them, IF I rmemebr corwctly it was about 2/3 the ay throu the install when the device manager was being populaed with the drivers and they did not jive.

I was hoefult casue the lsat install disk I had (win95 on compaq) would crap out immedialty, but then that was more of a restore disk.

I was probably using a business compt disk so my experience could be differnet that your wirth a personal pc

[setfree]

For me it was right before it would format but the other day I used a win xp cd that came with my parents gateway on my new build because I thought maybe I had a defective cd and it worked fine. Of course I have since uninstalled it but the point is that it worked so you never know

[justtoolate]

Okay, so I'll try it once my parts come. If it doesn't work, I'll head back to newegg and buy the OEM version of it. Thanks for all your responses.

[not important]

I have XP that came from Dell. I have it installed on a differnt computer. It is an upgrade disk and it requires proof of a previous OS. No problems.

[Floppyman]

Originally posted by not important I have XP that came from Dell. I have it installed on a differnt computer. It is an upgrade disk and it requires proof of a previous OS. No problems.

Same here.

I helped a buddy fix a (non Dell) computer once and when it came to the windows reinstall we used a Dell Windows XP cd to reinstall and had no problems. HTH