Microsoft Vista from £64.61

daggin68_2

Just ordered my OEM copy from overclockers. They are not enforcing the hardward rule.
I was allowed to purchase the disk on its own
Should be with me Saturday or maybe monday

executiverocker

alias7 wrote:

Any students studying a computing course at a UK university will get this free with the MSDN Academic Alliance.

I cant see this on my msdn AA login, and my uni want to charge £45 for c opy i will have to delete if i left uni!

rhys1979

Microsoft changed its OEM licencing rules though.

Therefore you can legally buy an OEM licence without hardware as long as you intend to distribute it with a complete system.

Therefore if you buy the licence for your own use (rather than for distribution with a complete system), you are commiting the offence and not Overclockers.

The rules can be obtained within the (Passport protected) Microsoft Partner Programme website. If you don't have access to this it is summarised here

Wi11iams

rhys1979 wrote:

Microsoft changed its OEM licencing rules though.

Therefore you can legally buy an OEM licence without hardware as long as you intend to distribute it with a complete system.

Therefore if you buy the licence for your own use (rather than for distribution with a complete system), you are commiting the offence and not Overclockers.

The rules can be obtained within the (Passport protected) Microsoft Partner Programme website. If you don't have access to this it is summarised here

Reading the link I take it then that as long as I am building my own system I am entitled to this oem version? Anyone any ideas if they will ask for an accreditied builders name or code to activate the software?

rhys1979

Wi11iams wrote:

Reading the link I take it then that as long as I am building my own system I am entitled to this oem version? Anyone any ideas if they will ask for an accreditied builders name or code to activate the software?

I'm not sure if you are entitled to use. You are entitled to buy for re-distribution. Reading the full licence terms if you recieve a sealed licence (as you would recieve from Overclockers) you should be installing it on a PC for redistribution. The point I was making is that OVerclockers are not doing anything wrong.

More importantly though the licence is unlikely to ask for the details you mention.

The only point to be careful of with OEM software is if you upgrade regularly. Any major component upgrades (motherboard or cpu) are likely to require immeadiate re-activation which will usually mean arguing the 'replacement component' case over the phone. All MS OEM products are granted 3 non major component upgrades before re-activation and even then these are likely to be easier to explain away. For example if you bought an OEM licenced DELL PC legally you should be allowed to change the (for example) sound card as many times as you wish without it being classed as a new PC.

retepetsir

Well, I'm taking a risk and have ordered Windows Media Center 2005 with Vista Home Premium upgrade, we'll see what happens

JABWootton

Microsoft Already Getting Service Pack 1 for Vista Assembled due to the bugs it has found and also been reported by users of the Beta version
Will be waiting 12 months before I decide to Invest as most of my components will not work on Vista due to drivers not been digitallly signed

Useful Site

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/winvista_ff_x64.asp

rhys1979

retepetsir wrote:

Well, I'm taking a risk and have ordered Windows Media Center 2005 with Vista Home Premium upgrade, we'll see what happens

This is a different kettle of fish. In order to qualify for the upgrade voucher you have to send proof of purchase of a complete system to the local MS Express upgrade center along with the tests results from the Vista Ready check run under the installed version of XP Media Centre Edition. If your application is successful you will be sent the Vista media.

Once the media arrives you will apparently have to install Vista over the XP install and will be unable to install Vista from scratch. This will allow MS to validate both your XP and Vista licences.

A better option is to purchase the Vista Home Premium OEM edition.

wullieb1

rhys1979 wrote:

This is a different kettle of fish. In order to qualify for the upgrade voucher you have to send proof of purchase of a complete system to the local MS Express upgrade center along with the tests results from the Vista Ready check run under the installed version of XP Media Centre Edition. If your application is successful you will be sent the Vista media.

Once the media arrives you will apparently have to install Vista over the XP install and will be unable to install Vista from scratch. This will allow MS to validate both your XP and Vista licences.

A better option is to purchase the Vista Home Premium OEM edition.

Are you sure about this??

rhys1979

wullieb1 wrote:

Are you sure about this??

A few people tried this shortcut before the Vista OEM was launched for pre-order.

The 'invoice-for-upgrade' problem has been mentioned on quite a few forums. Here is one from the eBuyer forums.