Switch installation from one PC to another?

[Guest]

Hi,
I just bought a new PC with XP Home (OEM) installed. My "old" PC (that I
want to keep, it's still very good) has XP Pro (OEM) installed.

Of course, my new PC is the latest and greatest, and that will be my new
workhorse. My old one will be for the children to play games, and later on
do their homework etc.

Now ... I'd like to switch XP Pro to my NEW PC and (conversely) XP Home to
my OLD PC.

Is this possible? Technically and legally?

Of course, I have both (original) OEM installation disks in my posession.
For further information: on my NEW PC, which currently has XP Home installed,
I have not activated XP Home yet (still 28 days left).

Kind greetings,

Herman (from Holland)

 

[Ron Martell]

Hi,
I just bought a new PC with XP Home (OEM) installed. My "old" PC (that I
want to keep, it's still very good) has XP Pro (OEM) installed.

Of course, my new PC is the latest and greatest, and that will be my new
workhorse. My old one will be for the children to play games, and later on
do their homework etc.

Now ... I'd like to switch XP Pro to my NEW PC and (conversely) XP Home to
my OLD PC.

Is this possible? Technically and legally?

Of course, I have both (original) OEM installation disks in my posession.
For further information: on my NEW PC, which currently has XP Home installed,
I have not activated XP Home yet (still 28 days left).

Kind greetings,

Herman (from Holland)

It may be worded differently in your country, but the EULA for OEM
versions of Windows XP normally provides that the license is
permanently locked to the first computer that it is installed on and
may not be legitimately transferred to another computer under any
circumstances, even if that original computer is lost, stolen, or
destroyed.

Good luck


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."

 

[Hans-Georg Michna]

I just bought a new PC with XP Home (OEM) installed. My "old" PC (that I
want to keep, it's still very good) has XP Pro (OEM) installed.

Of course, my new PC is the latest and greatest, and that will be my new
workhorse. My old one will be for the children to play games, and later on
do their homework etc.

Herman,

oh, here it's exactly the other way around. How can the kids
play modern 3D games if they don't have the latest and greatest
hardware? -)

Now ... I'd like to switch XP Pro to my NEW PC and (conversely) XP Home to
my OLD PC.

Is this possible? Technically and legally?

Legally I don't know. Just read the EULA (license agreement).
You may have to buy full versions to do it.

Technically, yes, but it is a lot of work, even if you just
start from scratch and install Windows freshly on both
computers.

A way to keep the complete installations would be to swap the
hard disks, followed by repair installations on both computers,
but those may not be possible with OEM versions.

Please read http://www.michna.com/kb/WxMove.htm for some more
details about moving entire installations.

Hans-Georg