Hey people,
I have an HP Business notebook that came with Vista Business installed. Due
to several reasons i now want to make a fresh reinstall of Vista on my
laptop. I have bought another copy of Vista Business that i intend to use on
a desktop that i am building.
My question is, can i use that install media but use the product key of the
Vista from my laptop without messing up key ownership and activation issues
between my laptop and my desktop? Is the product key hardcoded into the
installation media, so that my laptop Vista product key will not match the
one on the new install media?
You can use the product key. But, you will have to re-activate the OS
and I don't see any problem. 1question why did you buy another copy if
you already had one?
My laptop came with a preinstalled OEM version of Vista Business, but with no
install DVD. The product key for the laptop would only activate the OS with
the hardware config of my laptop. The other Vista is a retail version i
bought to use with a desktop computer. So i want to use the retail DVD to
installe a fresh Vista onto my laptop, but with the OEM laptop product key
rather than the retail key that came with the DVD.
BR, Teo
"iMav" wrote:
> 1question why did you buy another copy if
> you already had one?
I believe you will find the OEM key is specific to the HP Vista version.
Does not the restore partition on the HP have an option to make a restore
DVD?
They usually do.
"onlyteo" <onlyteo@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:4526D959-0810-4C8E-9026-06D0E89B4158@microsoft.com...
> My laptop came with a preinstalled OEM version of Vista Business, but with
> no
> install DVD. The product key for the laptop would only activate the OS
> with
> the hardware config of my laptop. The other Vista is a retail version i
> bought to use with a desktop computer. So i want to use the retail DVD to
> installe a fresh Vista onto my laptop, but with the OEM laptop product key
> rather than the retail key that came with the DVD.
>
> BR, Teo
>
> "iMav" wrote:
>> 1question why did you buy another copy if
>> you already had one?
"onlyteo" <onlyteo@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:1E6085CA-27E4-4142-813F-CF26E4603170@microsoft.com...
> Hey people,
> I have an HP Business notebook that came with Vista Business installed.
> Due
> to several reasons i now want to make a fresh reinstall of Vista on my
> laptop. I have bought another copy of Vista Business that i intend to use
> on
> a desktop that i am building.
> My question is, can i use that install media but use the product key of
> the
> Vista from my laptop without messing up key ownership and activation
> issues
> between my laptop and my desktop? Is the product key hardcoded into the
> installation media, so that my laptop Vista product key will not match the
> one on the new install media?
>
> Is this clear to anyone?
You may freely use the retail dvd to reinstall using the OEM product key but
you should first try to use the recovery software in the restore partition
on the laptop itself. Your retail dvd will not have all the drivers for the
laptop. If you don't know how to use the recovery partition read your
documentation or check on the mfg's website. On mine I press F11 while the
computer is starting up and that starts the recovery process. Otherwise you
need to download the drivers from the mfg's website to have on hand after
you reinstall from the retail dvd.
Thank you for the reply!
I prefer to download the latest drivers from the HP site, so that is no
problem.
"Colin Barnhorst" wrote:
> "onlyteo" <onlyteo@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:1E6085CA-27E4-4142-813F-CF26E4603170@microsoft.com...
> > Hey people,
> > I have an HP Business notebook that came with Vista Business installed.
> > Due
> > to several reasons i now want to make a fresh reinstall of Vista on my
> > laptop. I have bought another copy of Vista Business that i intend to use
> > on
> > a desktop that i am building.
> > My question is, can i use that install media but use the product key of
> > the
> > Vista from my laptop without messing up key ownership and activation
> > issues
> > between my laptop and my desktop? Is the product key hardcoded into the
> > installation media, so that my laptop Vista product key will not match the
> > one on the new install media?
> >
> > Is this clear to anyone?
>
>
> You may freely use the retail dvd to reinstall using the OEM product key but
> you should first try to use the recovery software in the restore partition
> on the laptop itself. Your retail dvd will not have all the drivers for the
> laptop. If you don't know how to use the recovery partition read your
> documentation or check on the mfg's website. On mine I press F11 while the
> computer is starting up and that starts the recovery process. Otherwise you
> need to download the drivers from the mfg's website to have on hand after
> you reinstall from the retail dvd.
>
Colin Barnhorst wrote:
>
>
>
> You may freely use the retail dvd to reinstall using the OEM product key
> but you should first try to use the recovery software in the restore
> partition on the laptop itself. Your retail dvd will not have all the
> drivers for the laptop. If you don't know how to use the recovery
> partition read your documentation or check on the mfg's website. On
> mine I press F11 while the computer is starting up and that starts the
> recovery process. Otherwise you need to download the drivers from the
> mfg's website to have on hand after you reinstall from the retail dvd.
Colin --
Would a retail DVD's installer accept an OEM Product Key? I wouldn't
have thought so.
"Bruce Chambers" <bchambers@cable0ne.n3t> wrote in message
news:OR5FAtQ5IHA.4448@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> Colin Barnhorst wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>> You may freely use the retail dvd to reinstall using the OEM product key
>> but you should first try to use the recovery software in the restore
>> partition on the laptop itself. Your retail dvd will not have all the
>> drivers for the laptop. If you don't know how to use the recovery
>> partition read your documentation or check on the mfg's website. On mine
>> I press F11 while the computer is starting up and that starts the
>> recovery process. Otherwise you need to download the drivers from the
>> mfg's website to have on hand after you reinstall from the retail dvd.
>
>
> Colin --
>
> Would a retail DVD's installer accept an OEM Product Key? I wouldn't have
> thought so.
>
>
> --
>
> Bruce Chambers
>
> Help us help you:
> http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
>
> http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375
>
> They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
> safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin
>
> Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand
> Russell
>
> The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
> killed a great many philosophers.
> ~ Denis Diderot
Yes. Unlike previous versions of Windows, the media that ships in the OEM
packs is just a straight Vista dvd. I bought one to (admittedly illegally)
experiment with and found that an OEM dvd can perform such things as upgrade
installs, etc. With Vista it appears that the product key really is
everything. Even the EULA on an OEM pack dvd is a straight retail EULA.
That is why the OEM (System Builder) license requires the purchaser to use
the OEM Preinstallation Kit to install the software. That is when the
consumer_oem eula is installed in place of the one on the dvd.
Colin Barnhorst wrote:
>
>
>
> Yes. Unlike previous versions of Windows, the media that ships in the
> OEM packs is just a straight Vista dvd. I bought one to (admittedly
> illegally) experiment with and found that an OEM dvd can perform such
> things as upgrade installs, etc. With Vista it appears that the product
> key really is everything. Even the EULA on an OEM pack dvd is a
> straight retail EULA. That is why the OEM (System Builder) license
> requires the purchaser to use the OEM Preinstallation Kit to install the
> software. That is when the consumer_oem eula is installed in place of
> the one on the dvd.
I think the answer is: legally no but in practice yes.
I think it is legally no because you have bought from HP the right to use an
HP-OEM copy of Vista supported by HP, and not a full retail copy supported
by Microsoft. An OEM key is not a license to any one install of Vista. It is
a license to one OEM install on one computer. The activation is against the
BIOS.
In practice the base media is the same (except for HP changes) and the OEM
key will work on retail media,
Anthony, http://www.airdesk.co.uk
"onlyteo" <onlyteo@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:1E6085CA-27E4-4142-813F-CF26E4603170@microsoft.com...
> Hey people,
> I have an HP Business notebook that came with Vista Business installed.
> Due
> to several reasons i now want to make a fresh reinstall of Vista on my
> laptop. I have bought another copy of Vista Business that i intend to use
> on
> a desktop that i am building.
> My question is, can i use that install media but use the product key of
> the
> Vista from my laptop without messing up key ownership and activation
> issues
> between my laptop and my desktop? Is the product key hardcoded into the
> installation media, so that my laptop Vista product key will not match the
> one on the new install media?
>
> Is this clear to anyone?
Reinstall fresh Vista on preinstalled laptop 
Linear Mode
