Vista OEM DVD 'hacking'

[PreOmegaZero]

First off, I think this should be legit...(I hope)

At work we don't have a volume license for XP, but I was able to take a Dell OEM XP Pro CD and take a VLK key from HP and from Lenovo, and make Custom OEM Clean XP Install CD's (using the VLK key for the respective OEM bypassing the need for activation, but still being tied to the BIOS/hardware of the computer in question).

I did this to have as clean a base OS as possible, so that I could create a sysprep for each OEM (3 in total)

I was curious if the same could be done for Vista (taking a Dell Vista OEM DVD as a base and making a clean DVD for HP and Lenovo using each OEM's VL)?

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[YeuEmMaiMai]

you can install Vista and then activate it with the VL key I believe.....

 

[PreOmegaZero]

you can install Vista and then activate it with the VL key I believe.....

Not sure if you read the part where I don't have a typical VL key. The OEM VL key has to be entered during the clean OS install (and should NOT ever ask for activation). I don't ever want the need to activate

 

[Joe Average]

First things first: It's not a VLK, it's called an OEM Royalty Key, it doesn't work like a VLK does... just for the record.

All you need to make an XP CD "an OEM branded one" are the 13 files (and 3 folders) that designate a given OEM, that's about it. The OEMBIOS*.* files, and a few others, placed in the appropriate directories on the XP CD and wham, that's it. Burn it with nLite or some other tool and you've got a BIOS-locked OEM XP installation CD.

Vista and Windows 7, however... oh well, have fun with that because it's a world of difference that takes a bit more work.

 

[zoobaby]

Not sure if this is legal. Since an answer is there and I am sure google can fill in blanks, I am going to lock it up. PM me if you have questions.