microsoft...grrrrrrrrrr...

[jklm_37]

just found this slightly worryin news...

"Microsoft recently made a change to the licence agreement saying that a new motherboard is equal to a new computer, hence you need to purchase a new Windows licence. Here is what Microsoft has to say:

“An upgrade of the motherboard is considered to result in a “new personal computer” to which Microsoft OEM operating system software cannot be transferred from another computer. If the motherboard is upgraded or replaced for reasons other than a defect, then a new computer has been created and the license of new operating system software is required.”

The reason Microsoft gave for this term is that “Microsoft needed to have one base component “left standing” that would still define that original PC. Since the motherboard contains the CPU and is the “heart and soul” of the PC, when the motherboard is replaced (for reasons other than defect) a new PC is essentially created.” Microsoft sent a memo to its OEM partners asking them to enforce this new policy, every time they upgrade a computer for a client."

if true then its another reason to hate microsoft ...

source: http://www.aviransplace.com/index.ph...d-new-licence/

was wonderin if anyone else had heard bout this or if its old news...

[streetster]

how can they inforce this? surely if you have a copy of windows xp with your serial number you can install it on a fresh machine fine? or am i missing something?

[jklm_37]

how can they inforce this? surely if you have a copy of windows xp with your serial number you can install it on a fresh machine fine? or am i missing something?

my thoughts exactly...does it mean that everytime someone upgrades their mobo wen im at work i hav to force them to buy a new licence????...

[Paul Adams]

This isn't that new, and it relates to OEM licensing specifically.

OEM versions of products are cheaper because they are supported by the OEM themselves - you do not get support from Microsoft and so the OEM get the price break.
Hence why it is intended to be bundled with new computers and not just a printer cable or a mouse, and it is not meant to be transferrable.

You buy a PC from, say, HP and it comes with Windows preinstalled - your licence is for that machine alone and any problems you have with the OS are dealt with by HP.
You want to upgrade the machine - put a better graphics card or CPU in for example - should that invalidate your licence?
The motherboard is considered the single entity which defines a computer - if it is replaced with an identical motherboard due to a fault then there is no problem, if it is replaced with a different model then your OEM OS licence is now void.

People have abused the "only to be sold with non-peripheral hardware" restriction on OEM software for years - OEM does not just mean "doesn't come with a fancy box and manuals".
If a software vendor sells you an OEM copy of software then they are accepting responsibility for the support of that product - so if you try to contact Microsft and quote an OEM product ID you'll get told to contact the people who sold it to you.

You buy a retail copy of a product and you get supported by the producer of the software and the software can be transferred between installations, or motherboard upgrades.

[Moby-Dick]

Paul,
I dont personally agree with soem of the attempted OEM restrictions , thankfully the European court doesn't either and they aren't actually legally enforceable - If a motherboard where to suffer component failure , and an identical motherboard was nto available ( out of stock for example ) I dont think another licence should have to be purchased. It is a grey area , the number of permutations and combinations of licences available for operating systems requires as much study as the Os themselves !

for example - if you have retail Office 2003 , you are entinted to install it on a 2nd machine , provided you dont run them both at once ( this does require some honesty ) , if you have Oem version , then it is good for a single install only ( and restricts activation accordingly )

[menthel]

It actually states that you can replace a faulty mobo without having to buy a new licence. It does seem strange that people are happy to take advantage of cheaper software, but then rail against the restrictions put on it that make it cheaper. If you want it to be transferable then buy the full, retail product.

[dave87]

I found when I reinstalled WinXP Pro (OEM) all I had to do was phone up and get them to reactivate Windows. I don't know if there is any limit on the number of times this can be done, but in my case it was because I replaced a faulty graphics card and added another hard-disk, so they were perfectly happy to reactivate it for me. Though I don't know how they would react if I replaced the whole lot and went to 64bit, even if one of the parts was faulty and an identical replacement couldn't be found.

I personally don't have a problem with the support being down to me, and I wouldn't really want to transfer the licence, as I don't change computers that regularly, and you can buy 2 oem licences for the same price as one retail (£99, versus £246) and can then run two computers legally.

Dave

[Kumagoro]

I hope that apple does eventually release OSx for x86 generally, so that i can
buy the family pack for £130 which allows you to install it on 5 seperate machines.
That is much fairer and I think more people would switch over

[menthel]

Exactly. You can phone them as many times as required as long as the reactivation is valid. I had to reactivate mine after swapping out a faulty mobo for a completely different model (IC7 to a p4c800) and they were fine about this.