Is my Dell CD of win XP Home

[bendit]

locked to my Dell computer? I am thinking of taking out the the CPU,
memory, floppy, and CD reader and building a nex box. WIll my Dell CD
be able to work if I put the chip into a new mother board?

Regrads,

Mike

[tom61]

Your Dell disc is most likely keyed to your motherboard. You cannot use it on anything other than that motherboard (OK to change any other component) without buying a new license.

[bendit]

Another hypothetical.
If I just load my hd w/dell xp installed onto a new motherboard
can i get it to work somehow?

Regards,

Mike

[TopGun]

No , the dell cd's are not keyed to the motherboard or atleast to my knowledge.

Just make sure you own a license for windows xp or whatever , cd-key should be on the side of your dell case , But i wouldnt recomend using it on another pc since that isnt legal.


-TopGun

[swatbat]

I know they xp home disk that came with my 600m would not activate on my friends desktop. I had given him the cd as I use pro on my notebook and was not going to pay dell 75 bucks when I had extra copies laying around(thank you action pack). I think in the end he called ms and got them to turn it on but I could be wrong.

[bluey424]

If i understand correctly, the Dell OS discs are just OEM copies slipstreamed with the device drivers for that model and all the trash utilities that most retail systems come with.

[lomn75]

"hypothetically"... this is the OEM EULA which XP, packaged with any major builder's system, comes with. Check c:\windows\system32\eula.txt for details:
THIS LICENSE MAY NOT BE SHARED,
TRANSFERRED TO OR USED CONCURRENTLY
ON DIFFERENT COMPUTERS. The SOFTWARE
is licensed with the HARDWARE as a single integrated
product and may only be used with the HARDWARE. If the
SOFTWARE is not accompanied by new HARDWARE, you may
not use the SOFTWARE. You may permanently transfer all
of your rights under this EULA only as part of a
permanent sale or transfer of the HARDWARE, provided
you retain no copies.

In a nutshell, you cannot legally move your XP install to any other motherboard.

//edit: note that XP Retail does not have this condition. Transfers are legal.

[corebreach]

What will happen is when you try to activate the Dell OEM XP on another computer, you will have to do it by phone and talk to a rep. They will tell yout that your copy of Windows is only to be used on the Dell system, and that's that. This happened to me, so I was forced to buy XP Pro (actually a very good thing ;)).