Does Vista actually enforce OEM licensing?

[ShawnD1]

In the past, installing OEM software on multiple computers was illegal, but you could still do it. Now there is talk about enforcing the licenses, which means you actually need to buy a retail copy, and you need to buy one for every computer you plan to install Vista on. This has me a bit freaked out. It means upgrading my network could cost literally thousands of dollars, and the idea of switching to Linux becomes very real.

Are any of these rumors true? Is MS now enforcing OEM and Retail licensing terms?

[RicheemxX]

Maybe I'm confused by your question here but you've always had to have a separate license/product key and COA for every computer running a M$ operating system and they've always tried enforcing the anti-piracy issue. What do you think porduct activation and WGA are?

If you don't want to shell out the cash for liscenses for all your machines then yeah linux is an alternative or the other is to not upgrade...after all no one is forcing vista upon you {at least not yet}

[RobRich]

Work or home? If home, you can opt for the Windows Vista Family Discount program. Not exactly my idea of affordable, but better than nothing.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/pro...ydiscount.mspx

[ShawnD1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RicheemxX

Maybe I'm confused by your question here but you've always had to have a separate license/product key and COA for every computer running a M$ operating system and they've always tried enforcing the anti-piracy issue. What do you think porduct activation and WGA are?

It has always been the law, but they have simply never tried very hard to stop anybody from pirating. Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, and 2000 had literally no piracy protection at all. You could download a copy from a website, run it, and get updates from the MS website. XP was a step forward with activation, but even then it wasn't a big deal because you could just call MS to activate your copy. I've activated my legal copy of OEM XP Home at least 20 times now.
This Vista thing is supposed to be a step above XP. Lots of rumors are floating around but the underlying idea is that software is permanently attached to your hardware, sort of like when you download something from iTunes and it absolutely does not work on anything other than iTunes. Imagine installing Vista and now that CD key is unusable on any other motherboard; that's exactly how OEM licenses are supposed to work.

I always just assumed they didn't care about piracy since enforcing it would be a bigger push for the Linux community than anything else. Even with Rob's linked family discount plan, the overall cost is outrageous. You need to buy a retail copy of Vista Ultimate before you can get 2 $50 copies of Home Premium, which brings the total cost of 3 computers up to $500 (retail Ultimate is $400). I have a total of 5 computers doing various things.

[RamonGTP]

You can still call MS and get Vista activated

[RicheemxX]

Quote:

I always just assumed they didn't care about piracy

So if I get your question you are asking if you can buy one disk and illegally install it on more than one machine, which you already know is illegal and you already know can't be asked or answered here at TIMO

If cost is that big of a concern then don't upgrade or look into running linux. I've got my free Vista sitting here on my desk unused due to the fact I'll need to upgrade a few things and don't want to spend the money right now. As for my other two machines they will be running XP until support runs out or until the time I'm forced to upgrade then I either suck it up and pay or I don't and I use Linux.

[Bizkitkid2001]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RicheemxX

So if I get your question you are asking if you can buy one disk and illegally install it on more than one machine, which you already know is illegal and you already know can't be asked or answered here at TIMO

He is not asking if he is allowed to install one copy of Vista on multiple computers, he is asking if Microsoft has a way of detecting multiple Vista installations and are enforcing the liscenes agreements.

[RicheemxX]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bizkitkid2001

He is not asking if he is allowed to install one copy of Vista on multiple computers, he is asking if Microsoft has a way of detecting multiple Vista installations and are enforcing the liscenes agreements.

you can pretty much infer where he's head to with this

Quote:

which means you actually need to buy a retail copy, and you need to buy one for every computer you plan to install Vista on. This has me a bit freaked out. It means upgrading my network could cost literally thousands of dollars,

[Bizkitkid2001]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RicheemxX

you can pretty much infer where he's head to with this




as my attorney told me once

"if you have to question the legality or question if you'd be caught or not then you are probably doing something you shouldn't"

Answering his question is not going to help him install Vista illegaly.

He already knows that what he is doing is illegal. Its not a question about legality. Its a technical question asking "how they do it?"

Its illegal to speed, but its not wrong to ask how cops catch speeders.


EDIT: Better analogy

[Cmptr-Gy-Dv]

well I can tell you how vista is a pain in the butt, (but MS says there working on the problem) this mother board uses 2 raid sets, one sis180 and Nforce4 ultra,
this week end I bought 2 3.0 sata drives, and reinstalled vista on the Nforce raid,
(it was on the sis180 raid) well it would not activate on the Nforce4 raid, so I had to call MS to get new activation code, for the same computer it was on, the good news is, they gave me the code with out any questions, bad news is the Nforce4
drivers don't work very well, so I deleted vista, and am now using XP, (I had XP activated on the sis180 raid to, and now it's on the Nforce raid, it did activate with no problems) so I was thinking about putting vista back on the sis180, but then I would have to call MS again, so I will just wait for Nvidia to get there raid drivers
fixed,