Windows 7 oem or retail?

The 3 major differences are:

1. OEM Copies have no support from Microsoft. With the retail version you get a free support incident provided in the price of the copy of Windows. If you buy an OEM license, you would have to pay the first time you call them.

2. OEM licenses cannot be transferred between PC's. Once you install it on a particular computer, that license key must stay with that system. Retail can be transferred, but cannot be installed on more than one computer at a time.

3. OEM copies are provided in either 32 or 64 bit flavors. You must buy the one you want. Retail copies come with both 32 and 64 bit disks in the box. You simply choose which one you want to install (but again you can only install one of those copies at a time).
 

xrodney

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Use OEM if you not upgrading your pc or dont mind to spent time on phone to MS to reactivate your windows on each change of HW or reinstall.

I went for Retail as 99.97GBP was nice price in preorder and I dont want to call MS every 2-3 months (10-15 min calls) to reactivate when changing HW.
 

gregor

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3. OEM copies are provided in either 32 or 64 bit flavors. You must buy the one you want. Retail copies come with both 32 and 64 bit disks in the box. You simply choose which one you want to install (but again you can only install one of those copies at a time).
Is that correct? Would be great if it was, but how come dabs shows both 64 and 32 bit versions (guessing they are retail)?
 



Unless Win7 is different, as I recall, 6 things have to change in order for the re-activation to trigger.


http://www.helpwithwindows.com/WindowsXP/activation.html
 


AFAIK, changing from a 3rd party volume license OEM MoBo as on a Dell system to a typical "home build" system does. But I have changed MoBos on home built systems "Distributor pak - OEM" w/o issue. Needed to change 6 of these to require activation ..... w/ XP anyway.

1. Display Adapter
2. SCSI Adapter
3. IDE Adapter
4. Network Adapter MAC Address
5. RAM Amount Range (i.e. 0-64MB, 64-128MB, etc)
6. Processor Type
7. Processor Serial Number
8. Hard Drive Device
9. Hard Drive Volume Serial Number
10. CD-ROM / CD-RW / DVD-ROM
 


Can you provide a published resource detailing how Vista / Win7 is different ? Would like to educate myself on the subject.

This says that the it's all the same but I didn't search much for anything different:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Product_Activation

Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, or Windows 7, the user inputs their license key given to them when the product was purchased, usually supplied on a Certificate of Authenticity enclosed with the product.
The Windows Vista activation wizard at the point where the product key must be entered

After installation, the user is notified of the requirement to activate their product within 30 days.[1][2]

Activation is performed with a utility supplied with Windows. It can either be performed over the Internet or via a telephone call to a Microsoft agent. For activation via a telephone call, a longer telephone activation code must be read to the Microsoft agent who supplies a code to input into the utility to activate Windows.
The Windows Server 2008 activation wizard when the "over-the-phone" option is selected

In either case, during activation, the utility checks and records information on eight different categories of hardware:[3]

* Display Adapter
* SCSI Adapter
* IDE Adapter
* Network Adapter (including the MAC Address)
* RAM Amount Range (e.g. 0-512 MB)
* Processor Type and Serial Number
* Hard Drive Device and Volume Serial Number
* Optical Drive (e.g. CD-ROM)