Chad,
As far as I'm aware, they are not allowed to modify the OS code, itself.
They may be able to make use of some undocumented, or not publicly available
settings, but not modify the OS itself. What the OEM decides to ship with
the computer, is up to them, as far as I know. HP and others shipped
recovery CD's for 95 systems, while Dell shipped a fully installable OEM CD.
The Recovery CD has to contain the components of the operating system.
These are determined by MS, I would assume. One noticeable difference is
that Backup is not included in most OEM 'recovery' versions of XP for Home,
but its considered part of Pro. For Home, its an add-on, that is included
with the retail CD.
The recovery CD's are basically a "snapshot" of a known system, at a
particular point in the installation process. All necessary drivers and
software are there. But the OEM has taken on the burden of support, in
exchange for a reduced price on the OS.
OEM OS's are another version of "reselling". A service provider (paging
company for example) can sell their network access to a 3rd party, they in
turn, sign up the consumer with their company. They have taken on the
responsibility for billing and customer support, in exchange for a reduced
price from the actual paging company. Example:
Arch Paging
"Sells" 100 pager numbers to Joe's Fly-by-night Paging for $8/month for each
number that is actually in use.
Joe's FBN Paging sells these numbers to the consumer, with a pager for
$17.95/month. Gross profit for Joe, $9.95 a month, but he has to bill the
customer, handle complaints, service problems and other issues. So, with
all the added overhead and support personnel, Joe actually clears
$2.87/month per active pager. Arch just sits back and rakes in $8.00 a
month per active number. No billing, no support load and etc. All they
have to do is ensure their network, works.
The ins and outs of OEM versions are governed by the licensing agreement,
and the contracts that are signed between MS and the OEM. I'm not a party
to those negotiations, so I can't speak to any specific terms.
Chad Harris said:
One aspect of this you could probably settle for me once and for
all--because I've gotten different answers within the same "OEM" company--is
whether they are allowed to modify Microsoft's code for an OS, or add to
the software. The driver issues I understand. I know as far as the hard
drive, Dell has added partitions sometimes hidden and features like "Clean
1K" and "ZZ Top" in the past. I would have thought that in the contract of
manufacturers with Microsoft would have been a clause that prevented
altering the OS. IMHO OEM software support is a quantum leap below any you
might get from Microsoft on the average as far as the learning curves or the
willingness to dig in and solve a problem--although there can be exceptions.
I understand the support issues, but what I wish I could see is a lineup of
the folders on an XP CD compared with the folders on the Recovery CD's that
tend to be shipped with most notebook/laptops because I don't have a
Recovery CD in hand to compare them. What I don't understand is since the
Recovery CD's don't seem to have the ability because they seem to lack files
and folders that the XP CD has on it why Microsoft won't provide them to the
OEM's unless it's a lot cheaper not to--that the OS is loaded in some mass
installation and Microsoft doesn't want to part with those XP CD's. Is
there a reason support issues aside that they don't? What are the
differences between an OEM shipped Recovery Disk and an XP CD? Why
particularly with non-desktops do the OEM's refuse to ship without XP
loaded? I understand people aren't going to get much support from Joe's Fly
by Night, but I also don't think from what I have experienced and can tell
from NG's that they're getting much support from an OEM manufacturer
software wise.
Thanks,
Chad Harris
bug
or have
an and
etc. Thanks
for want
____________________________________________________________________________
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/...ing/productdoc/en/recovery_delete_console.asp find
a
hidden folder in the root directory of the System drive called
"cmdcons".
This folder contains the recovery console files. If the systems
are
the
same (all SP1 and the like) then you should be able to copy these (no
guarantees) to the target machine and then add the following line
to
the
BOOT.INI file, [operating systems] section.
C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows Recovery Console" /cmdcons
Of course, if XP isn't installed on C: then you may need to adjust the
above
line accordingly. You could also search the user's hard drive for
WINNT32.EXE If found use Start, Run and enter WINNT32.EXE
/CMDCONS
to
install the Recovery Console.
A large number of people with OEM computers have a recovery disc or
have
lost it. They unfortunately don't have a licensed XP CD-Rom so they
don't
have acces to booting to the Recovery Console. I'm not trying
to
do
something that would be Microsoft piracy, I'm just wondering if there
would
be a way to isolate the folder where the Recovery Console file or
files
are,
and copy them to a CD or is each Recovery Console
specific/unique
to
each
Windows XP installation mediated by some hash I don't know about?
Thanks,
Chad Harris
