An0n0m0us

I'm after a genuine XP license for someone to run in a virtual machine. Ebay sellers are selling Dell XP COA's for £17 and claim they install on any hardware.

Anyone experience of this as any Dell cd's I used to have wouldn't install on other hardware.

I'm also wondering as to the validity of using the Dell COA's as they were sold with Dell hardware (which the ebay sellers say are included as well although stripped of hard drives and memory) and so surely not transferable to other hardware (or a virtual machine) as they will be OEM licenses.

I'm not interested in illegal methods of using XP, I just want to provide a valid XP license for someone they can run in Microsoft Virtual PC.

keljon

iTrader: (10)

to comply with microsoft licensing you would need to buy a full copy of XP not OEM

Galifrey

iTrader: (3)

A major concern indeed

keljon

iTrader: (10)

The OP was asking how to stay legal

Galifrey

iTrader: (3)

To use OEM licences you technically only need to change the HDD to one from the OEM licence provider, however, if they are previously used then they wont be valid as full copies or OEM copies.

jpor

iTrader: (1)

Going to be very difficult to find a legit XP license these days. Reason for this is that Microsoft want you to be running either Windows 7 or 8 on a PC these days.
Had an issue with an XP system that became corrupt with an official XP update which was known at the time to render a system license useless/reset it back to a 30 day trial. When you go to the Microsoft website to get the license re-applied, you can no longer do this for XP users Luckily I had found my license key in the end
I think the only way to do this legally is to find someone who went out and bought a brand new 1 license Win Vista/7 or 8 and did a complete re-install over there Win XP operating system (not an upgrade) and are now selling their full Retail version of Win XP disc and key.
Might not be fully legal as it depends how people look on trading a used OS and Key. Might be a grey area like buying 2nd hand Console games perhaps?

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Its true that you can get OEM copies working on a different machine, owing to the fact I've changed a lot of hardware in machines over the years, done a fresh install and its been fine. Although you do have to be careful as IIRC one of the XP update does check the validity of the license key...if its a dodgy key, it'll start popping up with warnings.

The one exception was with XP 64bit (may have been Vista - was a while ago) on a system where the hard drive failed a month after building it. So I had to phone Microsoft help desk to get another activation key (don't think you can do this anymore as XP is no longer supported).

But personally I wouldn't go out and buy a used OEM copy - you may as well just get a pirate copy as its either way you look at it, its still piracy. Only buy a full retail version IMO.

An0n0m0us

OK here's a question, some of the oem licenses come with the original hardware and so what if you installed xp on it and then virtualised that desktop machine and then wiped the original hardware?

Does virtualising the original desktop breach the oem license? I'm guessing it does.

This is all to run a 16bit application that the person wishes to still use but it's impossible to run on Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit which is on his current desktop.

The easiest way to do it is too expensive, that is to upgrade his home premium license to professional and use the xp mode that comes with professional but it's £120 to upgrade which is too much money. Hence i'm trying to find a cheap way of getting a valid xp virtual machine on the go.

winston69

iTrader: (30)

I've got a corporate version of xp that can be installed on as many machines as necessary

An0n0m0us

Also here is an example of someone claiming their ebay sale is completely legal

Item number:
171023430957

How can it be? Because they claim it's never been used?

An0n0m0us

Yes but corporate versions should only be installed on hardware owned by that corporate license. I could easily obtain such a key web but it's not legal.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

If its brand new and un-used, then its ok. of course, being ebay its difficult to prove its legit

Although few years back Mircosoft did something naughty: They re-worded the explanation of the terms of their OEM builder's license agreement to prevent end users installing a OEM version on a self-built system. But I think that's mainly with windows 7 onwards (I haven't read a license agreement for years ).

An0n0m0us

Yeah the ones i'm looking at are £16.99 and say unused but send the hardware it was assigned to as part of the sale. Now if it's assigned to a desktop then the fact the COA may be unopened doesn't mean it's new, it belongs to the knackered old desktop they are including in the sale.

One of them their business is specifically OEM sales so I might as well contact them and ask how it works as their business can't be doing anything illegal or they'd be prosecuted.