Reinstall fresh Vista on preinstalled laptop

  • Thread starter Thread starter onlyteo
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onlyteo

Hey people,
I have an HP Business notebook that came with Vista Business installed. Due
to several reasons i now want to make a fresh reinstall of Vista on my
laptop. I have bought another copy of Vista Business that i intend to use on
a desktop that i am building.
My question is, can i use that install media but use the product key of the
Vista from my laptop without messing up key ownership and activation issues
between my laptop and my desktop? Is the product key hardcoded into the
installation media, so that my laptop Vista product key will not match the
one on the new install media?

Is this clear to anyone?
 
My laptop came with a preinstalled OEM version of Vista Business, but with no
install DVD. The product key for the laptop would only activate the OS with
the hardware config of my laptop. The other Vista is a retail version i
bought to use with a desktop computer. So i want to use the retail DVD to
installe a fresh Vista onto my laptop, but with the OEM laptop product key
rather than the retail key that came with the DVD.

BR, Teo
 
I believe you will find the OEM key is specific to the HP Vista version.
Does not the restore partition on the HP have an option to make a restore
DVD?
They usually do.
 
onlyteo said:
Hey people,
I have an HP Business notebook that came with Vista Business installed.
Due
to several reasons i now want to make a fresh reinstall of Vista on my
laptop. I have bought another copy of Vista Business that i intend to use
on
a desktop that i am building.
My question is, can i use that install media but use the product key of
the
Vista from my laptop without messing up key ownership and activation
issues
between my laptop and my desktop? Is the product key hardcoded into the
installation media, so that my laptop Vista product key will not match the
one on the new install media?

Is this clear to anyone?
Click to expand...


You may freely use the retail dvd to reinstall using the OEM product key but
you should first try to use the recovery software in the restore partition
on the laptop itself. Your retail dvd will not have all the drivers for the
laptop. If you don't know how to use the recovery partition read your
documentation or check on the mfg's website. On mine I press F11 while the
computer is starting up and that starts the recovery process. Otherwise you
need to download the drivers from the mfg's website to have on hand after
you reinstall from the retail dvd.
 
Thank you for the reply!
I prefer to download the latest drivers from the HP site, so that is no
problem.
 
Colin said:
You may freely use the retail dvd to reinstall using the OEM product key
but you should first try to use the recovery software in the restore
partition on the laptop itself. Your retail dvd will not have all the
drivers for the laptop. If you don't know how to use the recovery
partition read your documentation or check on the mfg's website. On
mine I press F11 while the computer is starting up and that starts the
recovery process. Otherwise you need to download the drivers from the
mfg's website to have on hand after you reinstall from the retail dvd.
Click to expand...


Colin --

Would a retail DVD's installer accept an OEM Product Key? I wouldn't
have thought so.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:


http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand Russell

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot
 
Bruce Chambers said:
Colin --

Would a retail DVD's installer accept an OEM Product Key? I wouldn't have
thought so.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:


http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand
Russell

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot
Click to expand...


Yes. Unlike previous versions of Windows, the media that ships in the OEM
packs is just a straight Vista dvd. I bought one to (admittedly illegally)
experiment with and found that an OEM dvd can perform such things as upgrade
installs, etc. With Vista it appears that the product key really is
everything. Even the EULA on an OEM pack dvd is a straight retail EULA.
That is why the OEM (System Builder) license requires the purchaser to use
the OEM Preinstallation Kit to install the software. That is when the
consumer_oem eula is installed in place of the one on the dvd.
 
Colin said:
Yes. Unlike previous versions of Windows, the media that ships in the
OEM packs is just a straight Vista dvd. I bought one to (admittedly
illegally) experiment with and found that an OEM dvd can perform such
things as upgrade installs, etc. With Vista it appears that the product
key really is everything. Even the EULA on an OEM pack dvd is a
straight retail EULA. That is why the OEM (System Builder) license
requires the purchaser to use the OEM Preinstallation Kit to install the
software. That is when the consumer_oem eula is installed in place of
the one on the dvd.
Click to expand...


Very interesting. Thanks.

--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:


http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand Russell

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot
 
I think the answer is: legally no but in practice yes.
I think it is legally no because you have bought from HP the right to use an
HP-OEM copy of Vista supported by HP, and not a full retail copy supported
by Microsoft. An OEM key is not a license to any one install of Vista. It is
a license to one OEM install on one computer. The activation is against the
BIOS.
In practice the base media is the same (except for HP changes) and the OEM
key will work on retail media,
Anthony,
http://www.airdesk.co.uk
 
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