Well, with current practice you don't even get OS recovery CDs anymore. You probably get a "Recovery Partition" with preconfigured OS image. And OEM windows license might not allow you to install from elsewhere and re-use your license.
The installation media you receive with the OEM PC is not an authentic, original, pure unadulterated Windows installation - it's an OEM installation that, if you haven't guessed by now, comes with all the crapware.
Yes, you can buy a brand new Windows license for installing on your PC. But that'll cost you more than $99 this service costs.
This is also just how understand all this so I admit I could be wrong.
Full or upgrade retail copies that you purchase in the box belong to you and can be transferred. As long as it is only used on one computer at a time. In some cases they sold three licenses to a box but I'm not sure if that was three keys in the same box or one key that could be used three times. I never bought one of those.
Any other method of getting a license to Windows may not allow transfer. So, again this is how I understand it, if you buy a pre-built computer then that license of Windows can be tied to that computer and cannot be transferred. That's mostly what I'm meaning by being tied to the hardware.
The reason I understand it this way is because that pre-built computer would most likely have an OEM version of Windows installed. Since the OEM license cannot be transferred then the resulting customer cannot do that as well. Which is grossly unfair to that customer.
There's also the possibility this is because of a license agreement with the company that sold you the computer and not an agreement with Microsoft. So a license to Windows may be an agreement between you and the computer builder and not Microsoft. Which is also a stupid situation to put a customer in because they may not understand the difference.
Granted, this seems to be a "depends" thing. For example, I have used the license key from an old laptop that's no longer used to install WinXP on a different computer that I built out of old parts for my kids. But I'm also assuming that the key on the laptop is for the full retail version of XP and not the OEM version. Although Gateway may be unhappy with the situation but I think it unfair for me not to be able to reuse the key (that I paid for) when the original laptop no longer functions and is not worth repairing because it is around twelve years old.
In the end, when I buy a license to Windows I should be able to install it wherever I wish as long as I stick to the number of allowed active installs. Regardless of how I obtained that key. Well, I guess if they claim they gave me the key for free I can sort of understand but would still disagree.
I'm not a lawyer either, just a consumer stuck in legalese crap.
I wasn't aware you could get vanilla windows install media for OEM license keys. Does this work with older windows versions as well? I have a Windows 7 Laptop that I would love to do this with,
You can use OEM licenses on Windows boxes you build yourself. The main difference with an OEM license and a retail license is that OEM licenses do not come with as much support. The idea is the system builder is supposed to provide the first level of support, while retail licenses are supported by Microsoft directly.
I wonder, do they sell retail licence or re-sell OEM licence at retail price?
Anyway, I'm not sure if anyone really buys Windows at retail prices. Enterprise (subscription) and OEM costs are much lower, and for personal use you can buy OEM keys off eBay or AliExpress for a few bucks.
> Are you referring to all flavors(Home Basic/Home Premium/Pro/Ultimate) from one disk? Installing retail/OEM from one disk has never been the case in my experience
No, Home/Pro/Ultimate are separate disks -- but OEM/Retail are exactly the same thing. You have to phone in your activation however, since OEM keys usually do not automatically activate over the internet.
Vista and up, there is no such thing as an OEM ISO image. XP had that and it was a great pain for support...
If you mean OEM in the sense of the pre-installed image on your recovery partition... that's not an "OEM" install in the same sense as the XP disks were... that's a customized image either made by something like nLite or installed on a generic factory laptop, pre-loaded with garbage, ran sysprep (to genericsize it) and imaged to a file.
The recovery image/factory image does not use the license on the bottom of your laptop usually -- it uses a factory volume license key that is pre-activated on the image. However if you try to recover that key with some key extractor, and use it to activate another installation from an official ISO, it will not work -- ie. that license will only activate at the factory. If you use the license from the bottom of your laptop, you need a genuine microsoft iso.
So long as you have a Windows 7 Pro license key on the bottom of your laptop, and use a Windows 7 Pro ISO, it will work.. or Home and Home, etc...
Your current license key is usually for an OEM version and not a "full retail copy." I understand this as meaning you will have to purchase Windows 7 again if it came pre-installed on your PC.
I can't believe there is still no clear official statement on how the licensing works. From some sources[1] they seem to imply that retail licenses (Win7/8) turn into what is basically an OEM license, but then there are some sources that state the exact opposite[2][3].
I don't want to lose my retail Win8 license, as they say that it will be "consumed" by the upgrade (wth is that supposed to mean), so I'm going to sit and wait on this, maybe try to get an answer from their helpdesk.
They try so hard to make this easy for people, to make windows popular again, and they still fucked it up. I am disappointed.
"If you upgraded to Windows 10 on this PC by taking advantage of the free upgrade offer and successfully activated Windows 10 on this PC in the past, you won't have a Windows 10 product key, and you can skip the product key page by selecting the Skip button. Your PC will activate online automatically so long as the same edition of Windows 10 was successfully activated on this PC by using the free Windows 10 upgrade offer."
If you acquired the software as stand-alone software (and also if you upgraded from software you acquired as stand-alone software), you may transfer the software to another device that belongs to you. You may also transfer the software to a device owned by someone else if (i) you are the first licensed user of the software and (ii) the new user agrees to the terms of this agreement. You may use the backup copy we allow you to make or the media that the software came on to transfer the software. Every time you transfer the software to a new device, you must remove the software from the prior device. You may not transfer the software to share licenses between devices."
"After your computer has upgraded to Windows 10 it will have a new licence key. You'll need this if you want to perform a clean installation of Windows 10, as you can input your existing Windows 7 or 8 code into the installation routine. To get your key fire up the Magical Jelly Bean KeyFinder app and you'll see your Windows 10 key at the top of the list."
Besides, it's forbidden to install a fresh version of windows on an OEM, unless you purchase a full $300 Windows license. Moreover, if you do so, you lose the warranty. PC manufacturers have only their shoulder to sob upon.
I see people repeat this lie often, it is completely false
the OEM Licensees is tied to the Mainboard of the System, it is forever linked to that Mainboard, you can transfer that mainboard to other owners with out issue and it is still a licensed copy of windows.
1. You can't use the OEM license with retail installation media.
2. You don't get OEM installation media because the license is tied to the hardware.
3. The OEM recovery media can't be restored to different hardware.
4. The OEM license key can't be used to install a retail Windows install on a different computer.
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