How-To Geek

For background info, see this thread.

I just now realized . . . the VM I'm running on this machine is from a Windows OEM CD I got with this machine.

When I get my new machine (this week), it will only have Ubuntu on it (8.10 preinstalled - Dell does it). (Interestingly, getting a machine with Windows preinstalled costs about a hundred bucks more.)

So . . . and this is the part that just now dawned on me . . . I won't have a licensed CD copy of Windows with the new machine.

Now I DO have the OEM CD I got with this machine, and as I said I used it to install Windows on the VM. But as I understand it, OEM CD's balk at installing when there's a significant change in hardware. IOW, it will see a big difference in the hardware on the new machine.

I have no idea if running on a VM it will detect machine hardware. If not, then I am safe. If it does balk however, then I'm going to have to go out and purchase a licensed CD I guess.

I think I remember I downloaded an SP3 iso from Microsoft (it was not just a patch, but the entire OS), and it wouldn't install in the VM (SunVirtualBox takes iso's in addition to burned CD's). The only thing that worked was my OEM CD . . . SP1-a (thank God for broadband, or else I would have been days getting all the security patches and updates). My memory is foggy on all that I did, but I know the only way I could get a VM with Windows up and running was with the use of my OEM CD.

So, am I going to have trouble setting up this VM? WINE is looking better and better.

So if I'm understanding you correctly, you're saying that I'm going to have to go out and buy a brand new Windows CD (to be legal, that is).

Bob, the question of the Windows OEM license came up recently in another thread. I did some research and found a series of blog postings at MSDN that makes it all very clear. The OEM license is very restrictive and the one you have for you current system is tied to that system. From this post:

4) Can I uninstall my OEM software from one machine and install it on a new or replacement machine?
- ANSWER: No. OEM software has no transferability of license rights. This is not new and has been the case for a long, long, long, time. Look in your End-User License Agreement (EULA) for your OEM software.

No, no, no . . . LH . . . though I probably miscommunicated. I have an OEM CD physically - XP HE SP1a (vintage 2004). How I got that downloaded SP3 iso, I can't remember. It was from MSDN, not a torrent site. Maybe it was just a patch (which would be the miscommunicating part) , and not the entire OS . . . which would explain why it wouldn't work for a VM. I don't recall having to give MS any info to get it, which makes me now think that it was a patch only. The reason I thought that it was the whole OS is because this ISO was some 500MB+ . . . maybe 700, can't remember.

I did however slipstream an SP2 patch using the OEM SP1a CD, and the resulting CD DID NOT work for the VM. As I said, the original OEM SP1a CD is the only one that would work for use in the VM. I did get that 30 day activation code request in the VM when I used the OEM CD . . . typed in my activation code from the CD envelope and it worked right away. (Actually did that twice . . . for some reason [a crash maybe, can't remember] I installed the VM two separate times and the activation code worked both times.)

A grey area-theoretically OEM is tied to one machine,but it seems some have succeeded to use on another machine.

What is certain however is that it will need reactivation from Microsoft.

So its worth a try.

Another thought-clone the VM and transfer to the new-that might work as regards the OEM question-but you would have to investigate how to do that with Virtual Box.

Wouldnt you be better off dual booting ,with a Boot Manager like isl2000,into Ubuntu and XP?

I wanted to move my native XP into a VM on my Toshiba laptop (now running Ubuntu) but had no luck getting the VM to boot from the OEM install CD. I was eventually able to get it working though and it didn't involve ringing Microsoft or using pirated software. My XP VM is now fully activated using the original OEM license. and the automatic XP updates work. Details at http://move-your-xp-to-vm.blogspot.com/.