Vista OEM

maisiegirl

Hi
If Vista OEM discs are tied to one harddrive are the usual retail discs the same?
We have 4 laptops and 1 pc that we may put vista on if we don't have to buy seperate discs for each.

Thanks

CHR15

An OEM disk isn't tied to a hard drive. You can only buy the OEM if you buy hardware.

The disks are the same, you can use the same disk to install as many copies as you want. You need individual Product Keys for each machine.

So you dont need separate disks, but you do need separate Product Keys.

Zagu

You'll have to buy one for each I believe.

maisiegirl

CHR15 a very nice lady at scan did say something about buying OEM and a stick of memory. So I could install vista from OEM disc on multiple laptops/pcs if I could get multple product keys?

Zagu Do you know if the retail upgrade discs are tied like the OEM discs?

Just trying to work out the cheapest way to upgrade all the laptops cos they arn't old ones.

CHR15

Buying the OEM versions is the cheapest way as you are not paying for the fancy box and stuff.

The OEM can ONLY be sold with hardware, thats why the very nice lady mentioned memory. It can be anything, mouse, memory, fan etc.

I dont think there is a way of ONLY buying the product key (but that would obviously be best).


Ebuyer sell the Home Basic for £55 and Home Premium for £71 but you will note it says system builders only.

http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/123052


To clarify this Tied thing. The disk is not tied to anything. Once installed, the Product Key is tied to that system. If you change the motherboard, your product key will no longer work (as it will assume it is being used on a different system).

espresso

Why do you want to upgrade to Vista? What will it do for you that XP doesn't? If more users don't upgrade like lemmings, the price will soon fall.

ormus

its gives you big fat icons on the desktop.
cause thats all ive heard about so far!



(save yur money and stick to xp).

maisiegirl

espresso I don't believe that the price will fall that much regardless of the lemmings. I was recently looking for a XP disc for a pc that had no restore discs and the prices I found wern't that much cheaper than vista. However, I you could point me in the direction of a cheap XP disc then I would be grateful.

CHR15 Thanks so it looks like I should buy an OEM disc for each pc then.

CHR15

The fat icons are cured by selecting one of them (single click it) and rolling the mouse wheel.

maisiegirl... yup! oem disk for each unfortunately.

espresso

maisiegirl wrote:

espresso I don't believe that the price will fall that much regardless of the lemmings. I was recently looking for a XP disc for a pc that had no restore discs and the prices I found wern't that much cheaper than vista. However, I you could point me in the direction of a cheap XP disc then I would be grateful.

I'm sure that the price will fall after the initial interest subsides.

:rolleyes:

Another solution would be to use a system image program like Acronis True Image or Norton Ghost.

sco0ter

OEM software has to be supplied either installed on a system or with non-peripheral hardware so a mouse or the like dont count whereas memory,CPU,Hard drive do.. As for the usuall "What does vista do that XP doesnt" ... look at the official website and you will see a LOT of difference between XP and Vista.....