OS licensing question

[acr98disc]

I have a dead laptop which I will no longer use; it has Vista Home Premium and an LK sticker on the back.
Can I legally acquire a DVD from MS and use this copy on another PC, or, if I want to use this copy of Vista it has to be on this laptop only?

Thank you.

[glc]

It's a gray area. The hard part is going to be getting the other machine to accept the key. MS is not going to just *give* you a DVD, you are going to have to find one through other means.

[EzyStvy]

MS probably won't help at all since it's an OEM version...Odds are the pc maker will send you one for the cost of shipping. I recently got an HP cd from HP for $16.

I have three Vista Ultimate - Brand new sealed Retail versions I'll make ya a deal on

[Detonate]

Every day someone reminds me of why I love Linux.

[David M]

I have had Microsoft allow me to transfer my OS from one computer to another a few times now when I told them I had to replace the motherboard or whatever. They gave me a new code. It's at least worth a try. Just don't tell them it's a new computer you are transferring your OS too.

What is a new computer is kind of a nebulous thing, unless it is 100% new parts.

[acr98disc]

Thank you all,

then I guess it's worth a try, at least.
My laptop is Sony Vaio VGN-NR160E, so, I should be able to get a DVD from Sony then, there is got to be a way, what if I had to replace HDD on it?

PC is self built, has D865GLC with P4 2.8 GHz. It currently has Linux on it, but my wife needs a PC for her business, she wants Windows and will be running Quickbooks on it. I don't want to spend anything on new OS, since I have this one, but if the key is not accepted, then I will have to buy a new key or better yet, get W7...
She told me, "I can't bring anything illegal to work, not that stuff that you snatched from the internet, like this CCleaner that you stole".

So, I gave her a choice of either put this PC together or she can get a new PC, it will be more expensive, but she will have warranty and whole nine yards with it.

I will try MS like David suggested.

[David M]

If all else fails you can get a new OEM license and disk for $100 from Newegg.

[glc]

No, you cannot get a DVD from Sony - if anything it will be a "recovery DVD" which will NOT work on anything else. I think in this case you are out of luck. Sony in particular is a PITA, if you lose a hard drive it's not easy to get a replacement loaded. This is why most machines that don't come with media have a recovery partition with the ability to burn your own recovery media. If you neglect to do this and your drive dies, you are on your own. Note that this recovery media will not install on any other hardware other than what it was made from.

Technically - from a totally legal standpoint - the OEM load on the Sony is not transferable. If she wants legal Windows you are going to have to find something else.

I question Vista or Win7 on hardware that old anyway - if all she wants is something to run Quickbooks on, look around for a copy of XP that someone is no longer using. Quickbooks 2012 will run on XP SP3.

[acr98disc]

I also have full retail version on a MS CD with W2K Pro SP3, but that would be too dumb, I guess. No support from MS, but I still see W2K machines in the offices, though...

So, for her the best way would be to buy a new PC, I think? I also don't know, how long will that XP last, maybe soon they will drop support for it as well?

[glc]

Win2K SP3 (upgraded to SP4 and post fixes) would be fine - except I don't know what the last version of Quickbooks is that it can run. 2012 definitely won't.

Finding a usable copy of XP is a lot cheaper then buying a computer.

Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP3 - Full Version w/ COA - On Sale! $97.99

The price on the page is $78.99.

[acr98disc]

Just for the heck of it, to try, I have installed W2K as virtual machine. Couldn't get any updates, MS site gave me an error. It wanted to install some piece of the latest software once I got to the update page withing IE6.
It did ask me if I want to install them automagically, I agreed. Still, nothing was installed.

Tried my MB CD, it said it is not an Intel MB, which is D865PERL. Tried the same CD within primary OS, W7, it said the same thing, but I know this MB does not support W7, but it runs fine.

I know I could manually download SP4, but will I be able to get the rest of gazillion updates it had? And in general, since they dropped support for it, does it mean they will not issue any further updates or will not support it as an OS?
I am asking because of:

Originally Posted by glc Win2K SP3 (upgraded to SP4 and post fixes) would be fine

Thank you.

[glc]

1. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

2. http://www.microsoft.com/download/en....aspx?id=18997

Anything after that is gonna be tough to find.

[ice_top]

When I recently upgraded my MOBO, everything ran normal after a few driver updates, etc.
But then a day or two later all the sudden a window popped up from MS that prompted me to simply Authenticate the license key - That's all it basically asked me to do, no visible key was seen or much of anything, just a little box to click in a small window, I clicked it and was good to go.