OEM Windows CD

[oble01]

Hi,

This is my first ever post on this forum so first of all hello everyone and thank you in advance for your help.

I work for a large computing manufacturer and quite regularly customers contact us asking for their Operating System CD. If they purchased their OS with their system (XP Pro for example) then they have a license to run the OS on the machine and as long as they are running just one version of the OS they originally purchased and its on the original hardware it doesn't matter what they use to install it. I.e. they could use the original CD or they could use one from a system they purchased previously etc.

So my question is, can they actually make copies of the original CD and use them when required? I assume they can because essentially its just a backup. Next question is, if someone loses their original CD then can they borrow a friends OEM CD as long as its the same version of their licensed OK?

In my opinion you have paid for the license and have the COA label so the media used to install the software is irrelevant. Would you agree?

Thanks.

[-pops-]

It is the Windows license that you pay for so, provided you have that, you are able to install from a different disk from that originally used.

Regarding physically copying the Windows disk, you are not permitted to do that. However, since the security measures put into current versions of Windows, particularly Activation, disallow multiple uses of product keys then this is not as important as it used to be.

One thing to be aware of is that the Windows versions match disk with product key.

If this is done on a commercial basis, this indicates to me that there is something amiss with the company's policy and it ought to be a matter of course to provide customers with an operating system disk or, at least, a means of obtaining one by, say, copying a hidden backup partition.

[oble01]

Thanks Pops....

I noticed someone was selling an OEM operating system disk on eBay and wondered whether or not this was actually legal. I guess all they are selling is the actual media and not the license so as long as you've paid for the license and have a COA lable then you can buy a disk from ebay (or anyone else) and install it. As long as the disk matches the hardware manufacturer and your version of the and OS it will be fine.

However, I think it must be illegal to sell copies of the OEM media.

Thanks.

[-pops-]

Lots and lots of people have been caught out buying non-genuine software on sites like eBay. It seems to work OK until the grace period is over and the software has to be activated - when you find the seller has apparently disappeared. Sometimes it doesn't work at all.

Selling a Windows disk without a product key is wrong for, as I said in my first reply, it is the license you buy, not the physical disk