Can I dual boot XP on Vista using the following XP disc?

[vegas]

My old PC broke, that had windows XP. My new PC has Vista and I'm interested in being able to dual boot both XP and Vista. I still have the reinstallation DVD for XP, as well as the certificate of authenticity.

Can I install XP onto Vista using this XP DVD, even though I already have XP installed on another PC using the same certificate of authenticty to verify it? The reinstallation XP DVD says "for distribution with a new dell pc only", but will it work on any PC make?

Thanks.

[PeterStoba]

It's probably OEM so no

[Saracen]

Peter is right, that does indeed seem to be an OEM disk, given what you say it's described as.

And OEM discs are licensed for use on the riginal PC only - there aren't transferable to a new machine.

Moreover, many OEM discs are BIOS-locked to a specific brand of machine, and Dell do use this technique.

I know it seems unreasonable that you've got a valid disk and legit licence and have to buy a new one, but the thing to remember is that this lack of transferability is one of the reasons (and probably biggest reason) why OEM versions of Windows are so much cheaper than the full retail version, which would probably have cost you upwards of £100 more than the cost of the OEM version did when you bought the now defunct Dell.

So the short answer is that there's a good chance it won't work on other PC makes, but even if it did, you could well have activation problems because the hardware it's activating on will be totally different.

[Triplea4UK]

Your better of with it not working anyway xp/vista dual boot is awful and can cause loads of issues unless you know what your doing.

oem you buy yourself can be used on any pc but may require a dial home to ms or phone them up each time you re install it.

The ones that come with pc are not complete oem discs they are a cut down version for that pc series only or just a restore/repair disc.

[Saracen]

.....

oem you buy yourself can be used on any pc but may require a dial home to ms or phone them up each time you re install it.
.....

One you buy yourself isn't BIOS-locked to a given make, but once installed, the licence is not transferable to new machine.

[dangel]

Your better of with it not working anyway xp/vista dual boot is awful and can cause loads of issues unless you know what your doing.

How so?

[Agent]

Your better of with it not working anyway xp/vista dual boot is awful and can cause loads of issues unless you know what your doing.

Plenty of people around here use dual booting without issues - what did you have in mind?

[shaithis]

Your average PC user probably does not understand MBRs and bootloaders, ergo, installing XP on a machine that already has Vista loaded, would seem like a major issue.......

[mycarsavw]

^ +2

Dual booted XP & Vista for a year before moving to Vista & Ubuntu - no issues whatsoever.

[Agent]

Your average PC user probably does not understand MBRs and bootloaders, ergo, installing XP on a machine that already has Vista loaded, would seem like a major issue.......

Actually thats a good point, but I'd hope anyone installing Windows and thus knowing how to install drivers and what-not, would be able to use the most basic off keywords in Google to find a solution There is ton's out there on how to do it!

[dangel]

Your average PC user probably does not understand MBRs and bootloaders, ergo, installing XP on a machine that already has Vista loaded, would seem like a major issue.......

True but remember MS did one very very very nice thing - they made their Vista install DVD fix startup issues. Wouldn't most do it the other way round anyway? There's less issues that way round (providing I suppose you understand how to make a partition or lob in another drive).

Think you can do it so long as you understand drives/paritioning - most of the other stuff is irrelevant.
Certainly dual booting XP systems was/is a lot more hassle (no 'rescue' disc there).

[aidanjt]

True but remember MS did one very very very nice thing - they made their Vista install DVD fix startup issues. Wouldn't most do it the other way round anyway? There's less issues that way round (providing I suppose you understand how to make a partition or lob in another drive).

Of course Microsoft wouldn't truely need that if all their Operating Systems stopped hogging the MBR

[dangel]

Of course Microsoft wouldn't truely need that if all their Operating Systems stopped hogging the MBR

To be fair MS doesn't wax the XP bootloader when you install Vista - a step forward