Second hand Windows XP licence?

someone

Ok, im getting a new laptop soon and im getting a Mac. Now with parallels i'll still be able to run Windows. Now the problem is you also need to buy a copy of Windows to go with it. Now because it will be running in a virtual computer i thought I will get a copy of XP instead of Vista to ensure that it does not slow to much.

I started looking at retail copy's of XP. On Amazon they are £159.98 for a home edition! Now if you was building a computer from scratch you can by OEM version for just £64.99, that's a 60% off the price. Now you could not legally use this copy as im not building a system from scratch.

Now I think the Certificate of Authenticity (COA) is the licence for the copy of XP. If someone sold me a used copy of XP , had removed it form their computer, with the COA am I legally allowed to use it? Are there any good places to pick up a legal used copy of XP?

maninwhitecoat

well COA's even if they are removed won't work on another computer because the COA distributed with a computer is for that computer only. It takes into account the motherboard component and serial numbers too. So all those people that buy COA's from ebay can't really use them to be honest.

someone

maninwhitecoat wrote: »

well COA's even if they are removed won't work on another computer because the COA distributed with a computer is for that computer only. It takes into account the motherboard component and serial numbers too. So all those people that buy COA's from ebay can't really use them to be honest.

I'm not taking about the ones that are stuck on to the computer (OEM) but retail boxed versions.

Little_John

You cant buy a retail COA on its own.

The idea of buying licences is for OEM only. the saving isnt that great buying licence over buying a full OEM pack anyway about £5 well the supoosed cost of the disk.

A retail pack includes the nice box, the CD its case, manual and the COA. A retail licence doesnt die with the PC so if you buy a retail you can legally install it on another PC.
The really smart thing is if you buy a retail copy of vista business or ultimate you can legally install xp on that licence.

someone

I think some of you may be confused by how I wrote my first post so let my try again

I want a retail copy of XP.
These are expensive.
There must be 1000's of people (or company's) that upgrade to new equipment with OEM copy's of window all ready on.
Could they sell me the Retail copy of windows XP to me?

Fonz_2

In a nutshell, yes - FPP (fully packaged product) is not tied to hardware like OEM so providing you can be sure that the product is not still being used on another computer (this would be breaking the EULA) there's no problem with it.

someone

Fonz wrote: »

In a nutshell, yes - FPP (fully packaged product) is not tied to hardware like OEM so providing you can be sure that the product is not still being used on another computer (this would be breaking the EULA) there's no problem with it.

Thanks.

Is there any repeatable sites that you can buy second hand stuff of? There should be a thriving industry selling this stuff

I found http://www.discount-licensing.com/ but that's for more than one licence and they don't do XP

Little_John

Sorry but these companies that upgrade their hardware will be replaceing PC's that have OEM licenses with new PC's that have OEM licences it is very un usual for companies to buy retail coppies of windows as it works out cheaper to almost buy a new machine. and replace any problematic machines in the same process.