What would you buy? OEM or Retail (vista) Poll (also oem horror stories?)

[KPark]

What would you buy: OEM or retail?

I personally would definitely buy retail if it was cheaper but since OEM is more than $100 bucks cheaper compared to the retail versions I would buy the oem copy.


Any of you who purchased an oem copy have bad experiences with it? please share!

[silent-circuit]

Vista Home Premium 64bit OEM. No other way to fly. (though my copy of Ultimate from the Windows Feedback program should be here in a month or less...)

[PaHick]

Just bought home premium upgrade from best buy last week for $89 with the 10% coupon. Got the 64 bit disk from MS 2 days later for $10. I dont want to be tied down with OEM. I switch parts often.

[Hurdler]

Neither, Home Premium upgrade, with a student discount :D

(Well, I guess that's technically retail...)

[DeaconFrost]

You forgot an option for "It depends". I built three systems for friends who I know will be using these computers for years, so I got them all OEM copies of Vista. For myself, I upgrade often, so if I needed a license, I'd buy retail.

[Spaceninja]

OEM always. I have 3 copies of Vista Home Premium (1 32 Bit 2 64 Bit) I keep machines for a few years and most of the time they are never formatted. When I get rid of the machine I will have to have a copy of windows on it anyway. I just figure that $111.00 into the price of the machine.

Besides every 6 months the activation server forgets about your key. Activate on new hardware without any problems.

[JDAdams]

LOL at ever paying retail price :)

[digital_exhaust]

OEM here... I've yet to have re-activation issues with any OEM copies... of course, I should probably knock on wood there, but never more than a call to Microsoft for me.

[DamienThorn]

I've always bought OEM, and never had a problem in the past 10 years of doing so.

[huskerpat]

I bought the retail upgrade of ultimate. that was when they did the launch deal with 2 additional licenses of home premium for $50 a piece. Ultimate 64 on my machine and hp on the htpc and the parents computer.

[Mithent]

I have Vista Ultimate x64 OEM, which I got with my new machine. Considering the difference in price in the UK between the acceptable OEM and the ridiculously inflated retail, I'd have to do a major update 3 times before it was worth buying retail.

[milkweg]

Retail Vista is not $100.00 more if you buy the upgrade version. Yes, it costs a bit more but no where near $100.00 more. I always buy retail because then I can legally transfer it to any machine I want, unlike OEM. And with Vista retail I get both 32bit and 64bit versions, unlike OEM. OEM Vista you have to buy 32bit and 64bit seperately. It may have been wiser to buy OEM for XP (maybe) but that is not the case with Vista.

[Mithent]

I was comparing OEM and full retail: from one UK store, for example, Ultimate OEM is £106 ($208), and Ultimate retail is £323 ($634). Ultimate upgrade is £190 ($373), over $160 more expensive than OEM. I was also buying it for a new machine and didn't have a spare license to upgrade from.

[oboyco]

I've said this before, but the extra $20 $30 for the retail upgrade is worthwhile for the simple fact that you don't need to worry about upgrading your MB, or to another system with not having the hassle of calling MS for activation. Plus you just send MS $10 or so for a 64bit disc.

You never know when MS will clamp down on it's liberal OEM activation policy, kinda like when they implemented WGA a while back, when everyone said no way they would do that. I don't have to worry about it.

[L33t Masta]

Retail for desktops, OEMs for laptops. I saved a crap load of money by buying retail for my desktop because I can move it from the old PC to the new one rather than having to buy a whole new copy of Vista.

[MajorDomo]

My order of preference would be from least desirable to most would be OEM, Full Version, Upgrade, and Academic. Best overall would be Home Premium Upgrade Academic if you qualify or standard Home Premium Upgrade.

[oboyco]

L33t Masta, you said it all there!

[L33t Masta]

L33t Masta, you said it all there!

Some people call me a Microsoft fanboy, but I am an educated Microsoft fanboy. You won't be updating a laptop motherboard so OEM makes the most sense in that case since the license allows RAM, video card and HDD upgrades. I don't know if CPUs are covered, I would assume so since Microsoft defines a new computer as a motherboard replacement. Though I don't envy the day I need or want to send my laptop in for repair/upgrades.

[Hypernova]

Neither, free MSDNAA keys for the win!!!

[Mithent]

While I am a student, MS don't seem to do any academic discounts on Windows in the UK, and my university doesn't subscribe to MSDN for non-Computer Science students. Unfortunate.

[l3ender]

OEM here... I've yet to have re-activation issues with any OEM copies... of course, I should probably knock on wood there, but never more than a call to Microsoft for me.

Exactly. I see no reason to spend more money when OEM has done the job perfectly for me.