Legality of owning OEM's OS Disks/Copes?

S

sdotbrucato

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Oct 7, 2005
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Okay well for side work I run a little consulting business out of my house. Over the past year or so I've obtained Dell x32 and x64 Vista HP disks, and HP x32 Vista Home Prem disks.

What is the legality of owning these disks, considering I do not posses the COA that came with them? Also the Dell x64 disk is a burned copy of the original? Does this make matters worse?
 
Until you hear a "<KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK> THIS IS MICROSOFT" or "THIS IS THE BSA" then I'd stop worrying about it. Of course, since we have your contact info now from the business card thread well... ;)

JUST KIDDING... really, don't worry about it. Most of us techs have a box of various OEM discs for those just in case moments when a client happens to need a reinstall and they <insert reason they don't have the media here> so it's your/our job to remedy the situation with our "toolkit".

Just think of those discs as more tools in that kit, 'cause we techs can never have enough of 'em.
 
Joe Average said:
Until you hear a "<KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK> THIS IS MICROSOFT" or "THIS IS THE BSA" then I'd stop worrying about it. Of course, since we have your contact info now from the business card thread well... ;)

JUST KIDDING... really, don't worry about it. Most of us techs have a box of various OEM discs for those just in case moments when a client happens to need a reinstall and they <insert reason they don't have the media here> so it's your/our job to remedy the situation with our "toolkit".

Just think of those discs as more tools in that kit, 'cause we techs can never have enough of 'em.
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I'm not really worried about MS and the likes, I was just kind of curious about the legality of having these disks in my possession. Say a customer questions them or whatever. Just a little CYA. (Business is picking up and I'm starting to evaluate my practices)
 
d3c1us said:
I'm not really worried about MS and the likes, I was just kind of curious about the legality of having these disks in my possession. Say a customer questions them or whatever. Just a little CYA. (Business is picking up and I'm starting to evaluate my practices)
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AFAIK, Microsoft don't give a rat's nether regions about what physical medium you use to install Vista, so long as each _installation_ is properly licenced/activated in accordance with that particular EULA.

I'm not sure though if Dell and HP Vista OEM disks will actually work with other PCs, even with a valid key, as I understand they're customised to be used with a BIOS from those specific manufacturers (avoids the necessity for activation).
 
Simplest rule of thumb for a tech these days:

Don't sell a damned thing but service. Don't sell OSes, don't sell hardware of any kind, nor software. Just sell your skills and service.

There's no real reason to sell hardware or software anymore, it's just asking for trouble to come back and bite you in the ass - I've learned this building machines for the past 3 decades or so, give or take a few hundred machines.

Sell yourself and your skills, not physical products. If you never get into the actual hardware or software sales, then by definition you work more along the lines of a consultant. Someone brings a PC to you for some repairs, needs a new video card, etc, you say "You need <insert part here>, and I found a good price on it at <insert retailer or online presence here>, when you get it I'll be able to finish this job..." etc.

Tell 'em what to buy and they go buy it, you just get paid for putting it all together and doing the upkeep, preventive maintenance, etc. You're basically outsourcing the hardware and software sales to other retailers and picking up the pay for the installation/support.

So much easier that way, really...
 
Joe Average said:
Simplest rule of thumb for a tech these days:

Don't sell a damned thing but service. Don't sell OSes, don't sell hardware of any kind, nor software. Just sell your skills and service.

There's no real reason to sell hardware or software anymore, it's just asking for trouble to come back and bite you in the ass - I've learned this building machines for the past 3 decades or so, give or take a few hundred machines.

Sell yourself and your skills, not physical products. If you never get into the actual hardware or software sales, then by definition you work more along the lines of a consultant. Someone brings a PC to you for some repairs, needs a new video card, etc, you say "You need <insert part here>, and I found a good price on it at <insert retailer or online presence here>, when you get it I'll be able to finish this job..." etc.

Tell 'em what to buy and they go buy it, you just get paid for putting it all together and doing the upkeep, preventive maintenance, etc. You're basically outsourcing the hardware and software sales to other retailers and picking up the pay for the installation/support.

So much easier that way, really...
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Thats basically what I do. I've just been running into a lot of PCs that are FUBAR and require a fresh install of Vista.

The other day I used a Dell Vista disk on an Acer Aspire (had it in my car, didnt really come prepared to this job) and the customer questioned me on it. Really didn't know what to tell him.

Oddly enough, I didn't need to input the Vista license at all, and its actived and WGA friendly? Dell disk, Acer PC?
 
Shouldn't have happened, to be honest. If that's a custom burned Dell disk (and I'm not pointing figures, just pointing something out in principle) then it could have been "hacked" or tampered with in terms of the SLIC tables as that's how most of the lower class of humans that simply refuse to buy Vista are using it.

It's fairly easy to take most any Vista ISO and mod it pretty quick so that it can be used with any OEM machine from any manufacturer just by adding all the known SLIC tables and codes on the media. That way, no matter who makes the machine you're trying to install it on, it'll detect it, match the SLIC tables, insert the proper code, wham bam thank you Ma'am, finished install ready for WGA and Windows Updates.

Aside from that, there is no way that a real honest to goodness Dell OEM SLIC-table BIOS locked Vista installation DVD will install Vista totally and without licensing or WGA issues on any other machine... at least in theory. :)

If it did, well, that's a black hole of twisted space-time I'm not going to get sucked in to... :D
 
Joe Average said:
Shouldn't have happened, to be honest. If that's a custom burned Dell disk (and I'm not pointing figures, just pointing something out in principle) then it could have been "hacked" or tampered with in terms of the SLIC tables as that's how most of the lower class of humans that simply refuse to buy Vista are using it.

It's fairly easy to take most any Vista ISO and mod it pretty quick so that it can be used with any OEM machine from any manufacturer just by adding all the known SLIC tables and codes on the media. That way, no matter who makes the machine you're trying to install it on, it'll detect it, match the SLIC tables, insert the proper code, wham bam thank you Ma'am, finished install ready for WGA and Windows Updates.

Aside from that, there is no way that a real honest to goodness Dell OEM SLIC-table BIOS locked Vista installation DVD will install Vista totally and without licensing or WGA issues on any other machine... at least in theory. :)

If it did, well, that's a black hole of twisted space-time I'm not going to get sucked in to... :D
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This is a Dell branded disk we're talking about.
IMG00018.jpg


See? lol
 
Owning the discs is quite legal, using them may be a grey area legally.
 
jimmyb said:
Owning the discs is quite legal, using them may be a grey area legally.
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In practice, I use my Dell OEM DVDs on Dell, HP OEM DVD on HPs etc. The other day I got called unexpectedly, and didnt have my binder with me. I gave the Dell DVD a shot and it worked (To my surprise, I expected to have to go home and find an Acer DVD)
 
Owning and using the discs is perfectly legal. They license key that you use with them is what will determine legality.
 
This is a good thread, a couple of us around here are trying to start our own repair business too, it's so much cash out here where I live, no one seems to know a thing about computers past Limewire. We were wondering what to do in the case the customer asks or seriously requires a reformat and doesn't have the CD (most likely they won't) -- which gets a bit awkward since most of the people I know that aren't too knowledgeable on this stuff would not whip out $200 for a legal Vista, but we've seen people whip out $300 for a hard-drive reformat :rolleyes:.
 
Well, in my experience the BIOS locked nature of Dell and other OEM "reinstallation" media typically stops them cold when attempting to use them on the non-branded hardware - there's always the possibility that the Product Key on the COA sticker can be used to get it installed, of course. But the idea of the BIOS locking to the brand should prevent the Dell version (that CD pictured above) from just being a nice clean installation on some other brand without any issues.

That's just weird... ;)

But hey, if it worked, so be it. We've had enough discussions around here about OEM media, downloading the ISOs of installation media, etc to last an eternity² and personally I'm not interested in seeing another one blow up in our collective faces like most of 'em do.

If it works, I don't see an issue. The most important aspect of dealing with OEM hardware and the installation/reinstallation media is always going to be that COA sticker affixed to the hardware itself. If that isn't there on the machine, that's where installing/reinstalling the OS becomes a legal fine line. As long as the COA sticker is on the hardware, that's the true mark of "legal" ownership and the license to have the OS or software installed, soooo...

Look for the COA on something and match the OS to what it calls for. That's about as simple as it gets.

Now the question begs: if that Dell Vista disc worked on the Acer, when it was done, would the System Properties show the Acer logo as it should... or Dell? :D As that Dell disc only contains the OEM logo and information, it'll either show Dell on that properties page or nothing at all, which is another crossing of that fine line if the COA sticker has "Acer" on it.
 
Sooo.. odd discovery. . . I used that same Dell OEM Vista Home Premium SP1 disk on one of my test cloner boxes. . . Installed, validated and passed WGA. . . with no serial. :confused:

There is no way it's a SLIC verification is there? It's an ECS board??

Did I discover the ultimate disk to beat all disks? What the fuck is going on here?
 
Uhmmm... ok, now I'm officially stumped. Did it ever ask for a key at all or just do the install as though it were a real OEM machine like... oh I dunno... a Dell, perhaps? :D

(pssst... I'll be wanting an ISO of the disc for testing... yeah... yeah, that's the ticket...) :p
 
I think discovered the same thing!

We popped a Dell OEM XP SP2 32 from my laptop onto an old custom AMD desktop, didn't ask for jack diddly and validated @ windows update.
 
Joe Average said:
Uhmmm... ok, now I'm officially stumped. Did it ever ask for a key at all or just do the install as though it were a real OEM machine like... oh I dunno... a Dell, perhaps? :D

(pssst... I'll be wanting an ISO of the disc for testing... yeah... yeah, that's the ticket...) :p
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Nope, I was never asked for a license key. It just installed like it would on a Dell. I checked to see if it was validated, said it was. Ran the usual updates, including WGA, passed no problem.

[H]adouken;1033715422 said:
I think discovered the same thing!

We popped a Dell OEM XP SP2 32 from my laptop onto an old custom AMD desktop, didn't ask for jack diddly and validated @ windows update.
Click to expand...

Wanna exchange ISOs? :D
 
d3c1us- i have a gateway OEM vista disk that i use. Doesnt ask for serial or anything. I actually am yet to run across a OEM that does have a serial
 
[H]adouken;1033702393 said:
but we've seen people whip out $300 for a hard-drive reformat :rolleyes:.
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I know someone who paid $500 for it.... Its just sad. and a pretty big rip off.

but thats the business. those who know what their doing can charge people who don't know what their doing a good bit of cash.
 
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