Window Vista keys for different countries?

Kevlarman

[H]ard|Gawd
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Aug 4, 2004
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I purchased an upgrade copy of Windows Vista Ultimate (educational discont) and installed it with no worries on my current rig.

I am planning to move to Australia in the near future. The Vista DVD that I purchased says "not for sale or use outside of North America or Latin America."

My question: will I have any troubles re-installing or activating Vista in Australia (because I plan to purchase new stuff and upgrade my rig)? Does Microsoft do anything like see that your IP is from outside of North or Latin America?

Should I be worried?

Yes, I have a legit copy of Windows XP so I can legitimately upgrade to Vista.

EDIT: on a similar note, I also have a slew of games I purchased off of Steam, and with the recent hoopla about people having their right to play their purchased games revoked (people who ordered the Orange box from zest.com), I'm worried about that too.
 
Yes they have different keys for each country/region but Worst case scenario is that you will have to call local MS for activation.
 
Any key you bought in retail anywhere in the world should work fine. Tops is reactivation.
The only thing you can't do is buy an OEM copy (like the ones preinstalled on Dell machines etc.) and reinstall it with a retail DVD.
For those you need special OEM dvds.
 
The thing is that the DVD I bought is not exactly retail; I bought it from http://www.journeyed.com which sells education-discounted software for cheap (Vista Ultimate upgrade only cost $100). It is a legitimate Microsoft DVD with all the holograms and fancy stuff, except for the warning on the front.

In any case, I realize that all Vista DVDs contain all versions of the operating system; it's only your key that differentiates what will actually be installed on your computer.

So, to alleviate my conscience, I can merely use the Vista Business DVD (which does not have the warning) my wife has and install Vista Ultimate using my own key, right? :p

Of course, this is assuming my key even works Down Under...
 
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