windows xp home retail

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hi all my partners old laptop is going to be scrapped as motherboard fault and old , but it has a xp home retail coa underneath it . would it be possible to use this licence for xp on a desktop computer , and if so will it activate ok or will i have to ring microsoft to activate it.
many thanks paul
 
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If it is retail then afaik you can uninstall it from one machine and install it on another without problem.
It is the OEM version which can only be installed on one machine.
 
The licence will be for that exact version, if it is an acer for instance the licence is for acer's version of xp and I am fairly sure this is non transferable.

I may be wrong but as the manufacturers pay considerably less than the consumer buying a boxed copy off the shelf I believe that it is a condition of the licence.

Someone will correct me if I'm wrong, best bet is to try it and see, you can always roll back the desktop to whatever os it is currently running (assuming you have the disks!)
 
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Its not right that you buy a machine, that contains x,y,z (that you have paid for) & when the machine breaks you have to buy a new x,y,z.


Its just become acceptable now.

And not only that... after x no years, they then stop supporting your x,y,z
 
You do have the original Windows CD ? - I only ask due to the fact that many systems these days are supplied with only a recovery partition or recovery disk. In this case AFAIK you will not be able to port this over to new PC.

If it is an OEM CD version then I cannot see why you cannot at least try as suggested. Have a look here:
Preserving OEM Pre-Activation when Re-installing Windows XP
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb457078(TechNet.10).aspx
 
yes it came with laptop in the old days when you got a disk i just wondered if it would activate ok if i loaded it onto desktop as laptop is dead.
 
the laptop is an old advent 6522 celeron 1300 laptop it was not bad for celeron it just ran flat out all time and kept my partners legs and lap nice warm :LOL:
 
Only way to be sure is to try it, I have a few different oem's from various manufacturers. Some will not even install on the wrong machine whereas some will install and activate fine. Not tried an advent one though.
 
As stated "Only way is to try"

Quote from link I posted
Large PC Manufacturers known as Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) have the ability to pre-activate Microsoft® Windows XP software installed on new PCs. As a result, end users are typically not required to activate the software during the set up process by typing in the product key found on the Certificate of Authenticity attached to the PC (COA Key).

In order to reduce a significant source of piracy, Microsoft has disabled online activation for COA Keys that are attached to PCs that have been pre-activated by OEMs. This change should have a minimal impact on licensed users who generally do not use their COA Key to activate the software because it has been pre-activated by the OEM. However, if a licensed end user needs to activate because the OEM pre-activation does not work as expected (e.g., after the replacement of a defective motherboard) they can do so via phone-based activation.


I would expect likely problems if you did have to try to activate over the phone. In this case you will have to face the decision to either stump up for another copy of Windows - or look for alternative ways to activate
 
Just to clarify what has already been said. If the sticker is on the machine it will certainly be a OEM copy which will be licensed to that specific machine and not transferable. This is what makes it cheaper than the retail version.
 
Someone correct me if I am wrong but OEM Windows cannot be purchased on its own - but may be purchased and considered legal when supplied with a major bit of kit e.g. Motherboard.

The difference between OEM and Retail is that the OEM version allows you only to use the software on one computer. Are you really limited to just the one original machine or can MS be a little more flexible?

In the OP's case old system scrapped due to motherboard fault (therefore Windows scrapped as well) surely there must be a MS policy to cover this type of event?
 
the retail sticker is stuck under laptop and it says retail xp home i will try it on desk top next week and post how i get on with it . many thanks paul;
 
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