OEM - what?

[bmrmrb]

look at this page

why is there such a difference in the price? OEM aren't meant to be sold seperetly, yes? do they come with lesser manuals as well as a reduced warranty, because i can't imagine what would possess you to buy the standard edition with that much difference in price. i am generally confused so can someone help me please. confused!!

[Panama Red]

link doesn't work. Only takes you to the search page.

[colecifer]

OEM is direct from the manufacturer basically, no worranty, little to no documentation.

[andyms18a]

the most important difference is the retail version gives you 2 free phone calls to Microsoft tec support and a printed Manuel
with the OEM version the supplier of the computer is supposed to provide tec support but with web sites like this one about you don't need Microsoft tec support and all the stuff in the Manuel can be found on the windows CD and in windows help so just get the OEM version as its cheaper
PS
you are supposed to get some hardware with the OEM version as stated on the licence web sites like newegg supply a cdrom drive to sound card lead sometimes called a tad lead for free so as to comply with the licence

[bmrmrb]

i notice you are from sweet essex, i myself am in billericay (near chelmsford). thankyou for the OEM help. can you point me to some sites that are cheaper than www.ebuyer.co.uk that deliver to the UK as i am having trouble finding sites competative with american ones.

[RayH]

The product, itself, is the same. The license is different. Besides the support, the OEM license is not transferrable to another computer.

With a retail license, you can uninstall from one computer and reinstall to another. With OEM, you have to do a "complete" upgrade!

If you've found your way to the BBS, you don't need MS Support!

[andyms18a]

Thar are 2 types of OEM software the type that comes with shop purchased computers which wood normally supply a recovery disk this type of OEM software is very hard to move to another computer the other type can be moved form one computer to another as its a full windows CD

as for shops try http://www.google.dealtime.co.uk/xPC...em_Single_Pack

or http://computing.kelkoo.co.uk/b/a/sb...EM/117001.html

ps i am from sunny clacton on sea near cholchester if you get stuck the place i work has xp home oem for £85

[bmrmrb]

thankyou for the sites, will keep that in mind. sorry but what do you mean by "complete upgrade"? do you mean that if it was a shop bought computer that already had the software installed, it would be hard to transfer? but this version comes seperetly so i can put it on multiple computers (at different times of course).
thankyou for all the help

[andyms18a]

if you got a computer from pc world or time it wood come with a recovery cd if you later built your own computer and scraped the time one you wood have to get a new copy of xp as it wood not instal on the new computer from the recovery cd
the oem versions i have given you the link for can be uninstald and put on another computer