installing xp on new build

[bob windom]

This is probably a very dumb question but I have heard differing views on it so will ask the experts. I now have installed on my laptop windows xp which I purchased about 4 years ago. I intend to build a new desktop and am I allowed to use the original disc of xp to install in my new build? I would not think that I should have to purchase another disc for my own second computer.

[The Wise Monkey]

Unfortunately, you will have to buy a new disc - since your license key has been registered on your laptop, you cannot use the same one again on your desktop.

[shyster]

The only exception as I understand it would be to remove XP from your laptop.

If you originally bought a retail version of XP then you are allowed to transfer it to another computer provided that you remove it from the one it is currently on. I believe that is the only reason people would buy a retail version of any microsoft OS.

[Lerxt]

If this post goes against forum rules, then I appologize and ask that it be edited/deleted if so required.

In a legal sense, if you purchased a retail version of XP then you can remove it from the old computer and re-install it on your new PC. If it was a OEM PC (e.g. Dell, HP, IBM) then you can't use that install CD on the new PC since your EULA is with the OEM manufacturer not MS so you'd have to buy a new OS license.

Technically/physically, you can install as many copies of XP as you like on your PCs, only that subsequent installs will require activation after the install. Most likely, if you have a retail version and you are re-installing on a new PC, you may have to call MS to get a new activation code (tell them that you are reinstalling on a new PC after you have deleted the old install).

If you have an OEM version, your CD may try booting up and looking for your OEM's bios signature - if it's on a home-made PC, your bios won't be recognized and your OEM disc will not work. From a technical standpoint, you would have to get a non-OEM disc install with it and use your OEM license for the install. Again, this is against the terms of the EULA and so you can't do this legally. In addition, XP will require activation and you would have to speak to a MS rep to get another authorization code - this time, telling them that you are reinstalling on a new PC may not be a sufficient reason to get a new activation code. I think I am testing the limits of this board by discussing some of the grey areas of XP licensing, so I will leave it to you to search for ways to do this if you so desire.

In my experience, I have installed a copy of my OEM O/S (XP) using VMWare and MS Virtual PC - in both cases the Dell Install CD worked without needing to find the Dell BIOS - I don't know why this worked as the BIOS and all the hardware are generic hardware types and thus the OEM CD would not be able to determine if it was Dell OEM or not. The end result is that the install worked and it required activation (which I didn't bother to do as it was only for experimental purposes - I deleted the Virtual PC's upon successful completion of the installs).

Sorry for going on like that, but it's a very interesting topic both from a technical and legal standpoint.

[shyster]

Well I am not a mod so I cannot say for sure if this goes against the rules or not, but Jaime has mentioned that it is possible to get a new activation code with an OEM version of a disk.

As for your point about the cd searching for the bios, that is an incorrect thought. Dell, HP, and the like do not usually even give you an OEM disk, they give your their POS clone reboot disk. Which means it has all of the computer builders stupid extra software on it.

So back to the point you cannot really say that you are using an OEM disk since it is not actually an install disk at all, but rather a reboot/restore disk. You are correct though in that it would be hard to use a restore disk to set up a new computer.

You are wrong however in that you say an OEM disk, a normal one bought from newegg for example, will search for the bios settings. It cannot do such a thing since it is just the software required to install the OS and nothing more. Where you will run into a problem is trying to activate it. If you have already activated it once, and try to activate it again with the same code, your computer will probably go into lock down. Since all activation codes have to register on the internet and presumably enter a database, if a hit is doubled the doubled code will probably be shut down.

[The Wise Monkey]

Nothing against the rules here guys. :)

[Lerxt]

Granted, my experience stems from two OEM install discs that I have used. I first had an NT install disk which came with an HP and it had the full version of NT Workstation however it would try to boot into the HP install utility - it didn't have any other software on it just the OS so it wasn't a recover disk.

My second experience was with my current Dell OEM cd which didn't try to analyse the PC it was being installed on (which was a Virtual PC) so I can either say that there isn't a BIOS checker built into the CD or it figured out that it was installing on a Dell (not sure how it did that) and continued on.

So, most likely situation is that the XP install discs that come with OEM's may not bother checking the system, however, getting an installation key may require contact with MS and they will determine if you can reinstall on another computer.

Of course, you would have to make sure that the disc was an install disc vs. recovery/repair disc for this to work.

[shyster]

If it was trying to boot the HP install program instead of the normal windows install, then it was a recovery disk. The recovery disks have the entire OS loaded on, but they clone disks rather than real OEM microsoft OS disks.

And again I reiterate that a real OEM will not scan for hardware settings because there is no point in doing such a thing. A cd is a read only item. The information that is on it is set, so if you just installed your OEM OS on computer A, and then went to install it on computer B (which has compeletly different everything) they would both install fine and perfect. This is because the disk only has the information to move onto the computer, the computer cannot move information back onto the disk.

However once you try to put in the activation code in both computers, one of the computers, likely the one that had the code activated second will lock up. This is because OS detection and copying is done via microsofts server rather than from the install cd.

And just to clear things up, what I meant by recovery disk was a disk that does not do a true clean install, but a cloned install that has preloaded dell, hp, etc., software already set and running.