In a post by stevo1210 located HERE, Zandrax makes the following quote:
This got me to thinking about Windows OEM licensing.
I have a 40 GIG WD hard drive loaded with an OEM version of XP pro. My motherboard died, so I thought that this was the end of this operating system, but I saved the hard drive with XP loaded onto it anyway.
After reading this post, I remembered about the hard drive that I had socked away. It's been a good three years since the drive has been in an operational system, so I decided to put Microsoft to the test.
First, I scavenged my spare parts for enough equipment to build a system. I had a case, a motherboard (Aopen AX4SG-UN), a Geforce 7600 GS 512 Mb DDR 2 AGP, a Toshiba DVD writer drive, an Antec 700 watt power supply, a decent Thermaltake CPU cooler, and a 320 Gig Seagate hard drive.
I got a Pentium 4 socket 478 2.7GHz HT on Ebay for $27.00 (shipping included) and 2 Gigs of Corsair XMS Platinum series memory (512 Mb a stick) on Ebay for $36.00 (shipping included). So for about $60.00, I was set to build my "experiment box"
After I assembled the components (using the 40 Gig as a master and the 320 Gig as a slave), I booted the system. I expected the BSOD and an install from the recovery console. What got was something totally unexpected!
Windows booted up, and then started discovering all of the new hardware! I had all of the drivers ready (including the motherboad drivers), so there was no problem there. After the driver installation, I was prompted to reboot my machine, which I did. Okay, so far, so good, but I was prepared for the disappointment which would certainly lie ahead with the "Windows OEM licensing" problem.
After I rebooted, Windows informed me that the hardware had significantly changed, and that I would have three days to re-activate Windows or or would be shut down.
I then pressed the activation key.... AND IT ACTIVATED SUCCESSFULLY! WTF??? I paid about $100.00 for this OEM version, OEM means that it can only be installed on one machine and one machine only, and yet (except for the 40 Gig hard drive) it activated on a totally brand new machine! WTF??
I now have a machine that I laid out $60.00 for that has pretty decent space, speed, and performance. I installed Service pack 3, and with the exception of some random "Page fault in non -paged area" errors, the machine has been running constantly 24/7 for the past two weeks without as much as a hiccup!
WTF??
Originally posted by zandrax
I have a 40 GIG WD hard drive loaded with an OEM version of XP pro. My motherboard died, so I thought that this was the end of this operating system, but I saved the hard drive with XP loaded onto it anyway.
After reading this post, I remembered about the hard drive that I had socked away. It's been a good three years since the drive has been in an operational system, so I decided to put Microsoft to the test.
First, I scavenged my spare parts for enough equipment to build a system. I had a case, a motherboard (Aopen AX4SG-UN), a Geforce 7600 GS 512 Mb DDR 2 AGP, a Toshiba DVD writer drive, an Antec 700 watt power supply, a decent Thermaltake CPU cooler, and a 320 Gig Seagate hard drive.
I got a Pentium 4 socket 478 2.7GHz HT on Ebay for $27.00 (shipping included) and 2 Gigs of Corsair XMS Platinum series memory (512 Mb a stick) on Ebay for $36.00 (shipping included). So for about $60.00, I was set to build my "experiment box"
After I assembled the components (using the 40 Gig as a master and the 320 Gig as a slave), I booted the system. I expected the BSOD and an install from the recovery console. What got was something totally unexpected!
Windows booted up, and then started discovering all of the new hardware! I had all of the drivers ready (including the motherboad drivers), so there was no problem there. After the driver installation, I was prompted to reboot my machine, which I did. Okay, so far, so good, but I was prepared for the disappointment which would certainly lie ahead with the "Windows OEM licensing" problem.
After I rebooted, Windows informed me that the hardware had significantly changed, and that I would have three days to re-activate Windows or or would be shut down.
I then pressed the activation key.... AND IT ACTIVATED SUCCESSFULLY! WTF??? I paid about $100.00 for this OEM version, OEM means that it can only be installed on one machine and one machine only, and yet (except for the 40 Gig hard drive) it activated on a totally brand new machine! WTF??
I now have a machine that I laid out $60.00 for that has pretty decent space, speed, and performance. I installed Service pack 3, and with the exception of some random "Page fault in non -paged area" errors, the machine has been running constantly 24/7 for the past two weeks without as much as a hiccup!
WTF??

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