megasxlr Posted June 2, 2009 Report Share Posted June 2, 2009 I'm in a bit of stuck and wondered if someone could help.A few years ago my e-machines pc blew up it's mobo taking it's windows xp home oem with it. I've just got round to replacing the mobo and sourcing a new Operating System. I was after another copy of Windows XP (home or pro) but didn't want another OEM as I wanted to install Windows & ubuntu on this machine and another pc I'm building. As OEM's don't allow you to do this as they bind to the machine they are installed on I searched the net for a copy of XP retail, but at the moment they are going for a pretty penny but I managed to find a 'retail' copy of Windows 2000. When I got the 'retail' copy of windows, it was marked 'for distribution with a new pc only' but the Certificate Of Authenticity says '1-2 CPU'. I've double checked with the seller who again says that it is a full retail copy.Is this Windows 2000 an oem or a retail copy? I've never seen either one before so cannot tell? (I'm only familiar with XP Oem's)Will I be able to remove it or install it as I please? After this I was planning to decide which machine I want it on then decide whether to keep 2000 or purchase an XP Upgrade but if this is an oem it will be bound to the machine.Thanks in advance.Kind regards,MXLR. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boris Posted June 2, 2009 Report Share Posted June 2, 2009 Windows 2000 is so old that it does not come under Microsoft's activation policy. It does not have a Retail or OEM concept, but is only supposed to be installed on one PC. It has not been supported for some time, and unlike XP has no System Restore capability. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
megasxlr Posted June 3, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 3, 2009 Windows 2000 is so old that it does not come under Microsoft's activation policy. It does not have a Retail or OEM concept, but is only supposed to be installed on one PC. It has not been supported for some time, and unlike XP has no System Restore capability.Thanks Boris, that helps to know there's no activation to worry about, but on ebay retailers are selling Windows 2000 Retail and OEM versions, if my oem has no activation and I can install it on any pc I like (but only one pc at any time) why offer a retail version? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rong Posted June 3, 2009 Report Share Posted June 3, 2009 I think they expect you to be honest ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb Posted June 4, 2009 Report Share Posted June 4, 2009 OEM software shouldn't be sold on the market; OEM software should only come preinstalled on sold computers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pa1916 Posted June 5, 2009 Report Share Posted June 5, 2009 Windows 2000 is so old that it does not come under Microsoft's activation policy. It does not have a Retail or OEM concept, but is only supposed to be installed on one PC. It has not been supported for some time, and unlike XP has no System Restore capability.CORRECTION W2000 is now in extended support till 20/7/2010.But software for this OS is now a problem Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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