Legal Key

I had Windows XP Media center on a laptop with the registration key and
all WGA checked out. Now I have destroyed the Laptop. Can I load
Windows XP media center on another computer and use my key and be legal
with Microsoft?

And the answer is...it depends.

If your original Windows license was an OEM license, that type of
license is not legally transferable to another PC. If the intended PC is
made by the same OEM as your original PC, try calling the OEM. Nothing
to lose.

If you originally had a retail license, you can legally transfer that
license to another PC but you will probably have to explain yourself to
Microsoft.
---
Leonard Grey
Errare Humanum Est

Claude Hopper wrote:
> I had Windows XP Media center on a laptop with the registration key and
> all WGA checked out. Now I have destroyed the Laptop. Can I load
> Windows XP media center on another computer and use my key and be legal
> with Microsoft?

Claude Hopper wrote:
> I had Windows XP Media center on a laptop with the registration key
> and all WGA checked out. Now I have destroyed the Laptop. Can I load
> Windows XP media center on another computer and use my key and be
> legal with Microsoft?

Not really if it is OEM, but do it anyway, I have XP upgrade licenses for
most of my PC's, which means I can move it from PC to PC
as long as I remove it from the old PC.
Do this.... install it on the new PC when and if the activation fails and
makes you call Microsoft tell them it is the same system but the motherboard
is
fried AND it is being done under warranty (if you want)

The fine folks in India won't care...

Clark...

On Tue, 14 Oct 2008 22:05:22 -0400, Claude Hopper
<boobooililililil@roadrunner.com> wrote:

> I had Windows XP Media center on a laptop with the registration key and
> all WGA checked out. Now I have destroyed the Laptop. Can I load
> Windows XP media center on another computer and use my key and be legal
> with Microsoft?


If it's a retail copy, yes. If it's an OEM copy, no. The biggest
disadvantage of OEM copies is that their license ties them permanently
to the first computer they are installed on.

Most laptops come with Windows installed. If yours did, yours is an
OEM copy, and you may *not* do this.

--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
Please Reply to the Newsgroup

Ken Blake, MVP wrote:
> On Tue, 14 Oct 2008 22:05:22 -0400, Claude Hopper
> <boobooililililil@roadrunner.com> wrote:
>
>> I had Windows XP Media center on a laptop with the registration key and
>> all WGA checked out. Now I have destroyed the Laptop. Can I load
>> Windows XP media center on another computer and use my key and be legal
>> with Microsoft?
>
>
> If it's a retail copy, yes. If it's an OEM copy, no. The biggest
> disadvantage of OEM copies is that their license ties them permanently
> to the first computer they are installed on.
>
> Most laptops come with Windows installed. If yours did, yours is an
> OEM copy, and you may *not* do this.
>

I didn't pay for it?

If you are referring to your OEM copy of Windows, of course you paid for
it. But you paid less for it than you would have paid to buy a retail
copy, and two of the things you gave up in return are:

1- no support from Microsoft (no great loss, in my opinion), and
2- the ability to transfer your license to another computer.

I'm not saying that's fair, but that's the way it is.
---
Leonard Grey
Errare Humanum Est

Claude Hopper wrote:
> Ken Blake, MVP wrote:
>> On Tue, 14 Oct 2008 22:05:22 -0400, Claude Hopper
>> <boobooililililil@roadrunner.com> wrote:
>>
>>> I had Windows XP Media center on a laptop with the registration key and
>>> all WGA checked out. Now I have destroyed the Laptop. Can I load
>>> Windows XP media center on another computer and use my key and be legal
>>> with Microsoft?
>>
>> If it's a retail copy, yes. If it's an OEM copy, no. The biggest
>> disadvantage of OEM copies is that their license ties them permanently
>> to the first computer they are installed on.
>>
>> Most laptops come with Windows installed. If yours did, yours is an
>> OEM copy, and you may *not* do this.
>>
>
> I didn't pay for it?

On Thu, 16 Oct 2008 12:57:33 -0400, Claude Hopper
<boobooililililil@roadrunner.com> wrote:

> Ken Blake, MVP wrote:
> > On Tue, 14 Oct 2008 22:05:22 -0400, Claude Hopper
> > <boobooililililil@roadrunner.com> wrote:
> >
> >> I had Windows XP Media center on a laptop with the registration key and
> >> all WGA checked out. Now I have destroyed the Laptop. Can I load
> >> Windows XP media center on another computer and use my key and be legal
> >> with Microsoft?
> >
> >
> > If it's a retail copy, yes. If it's an OEM copy, no. The biggest
> > disadvantage of OEM copies is that their license ties them permanently
> > to the first computer they are installed on.
> >
> > Most laptops come with Windows installed. If yours did, yours is an
> > OEM copy, and you may *not* do this.
> >
>
> I didn't pay for it?

--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
Please Reply to the Newsgroup

On Thu, 16 Oct 2008 12:57:33 -0400, Claude Hopper
<boobooililililil@roadrunner.com> wrote:

> Ken Blake, MVP wrote:
> > On Tue, 14 Oct 2008 22:05:22 -0400, Claude Hopper
> > <boobooililililil@roadrunner.com> wrote:
> >
> >> I had Windows XP Media center on a laptop with the registration key and
> >> all WGA checked out. Now I have destroyed the Laptop. Can I load
> >> Windows XP media center on another computer and use my key and be legal
> >> with Microsoft?
> >
> >
> > If it's a retail copy, yes. If it's an OEM copy, no. The biggest
> > disadvantage of OEM copies is that their license ties them permanently
> > to the first computer they are installed on.
> >
> > Most laptops come with Windows installed. If yours did, yours is an
> > OEM copy, and you may *not* do this.
> >
>
> I didn't pay for it?


If yours is an OEM copy, yes, you paid for it, along with a EULA that
specifies what you may do and what you may not do. You paid a low
price for it (a lower price than the price of a retail copy), and I'm
afraid that it's *your* responsibility to find out what you get and
what you don't get for that low price before you choose to buy it.

OEM copies have several disadvantages, and this is the biggest one, as
far as I'm concerned. It's the reason that I normally recommend to
people that they do not buy OEM copies. If I had my druthers, there
wouldn't even be such a thing as an OEM copy, and all copies would be
retail and they would all have the same rules that applied to them.

--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
Please Reply to the Newsgroup